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University  of  California, 

OrlTTT     OK 

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187S. 


L I  B  B  A  B  Y 

UNIVERSITY  OF 


LIBRARY 

U  NITERS  IT  Y  OF 

CALIFORNIA.^ 


r  n  rvv 

1  Qp£r^'T\Ki   ;. 

SOUTHERN   HISTORY   OF   THE  WAR 


THE 


THIRD  YEAR  OF  THE  WAR, 


BY 


EDWARD   A.   POLLARD, 

AUTHOK  OF   "FIRST  AND   SECOND  YEARS  OF  THE  WAR.' 


LIBRARY 

UNIVERSITY  OF 

CALIFORNIA. 


NEW  YORK: 
CHARLES    B.    RICHARDSON, 

441    BROADWAY. 
1865. 


CONTENTS. 


CHAPTEE  I. 

Review  of  the  Battle  of  Chancellorsville. — Two  Defects  in  the  Victory  of  the  Con 
federates. — "  The  Finest  Army  on  the  Planet." — Analysis  of  the  Victory. — General 
ship  of  Lee.— Services  and  Character  of  the  great  Confederate  Leader.— His  Com 
monplaces  and  his  Virtues. — The  Situation  in  Virginia. — Lee's  Preparations  for  the 
Summer  Campaign. — Hooker  to  be  Maneuvered  out  of  Virginia. — Keorganization  of 
Lee's  Army. — The  Affair  of  Brandy  Station. — THE  CAPTURE  OF  WINCHESTER. — The 
Affair  of  Aldie's  Station. — Lee's  Army  Crossing  the  Potomac. — Invasion  of  Pennsyl 
vania. — Alarm  in  the  North. — Hooker  Out-Generalled  and  Removed. — The  Mild 
Warfare  of  the  Confederate  Invaders. — Southern  "Chivalry." — General  Lee's  Error. 
— His  Splendid  March  from  Culpepper  Court  House  to  Gettysburg. — Feverish  Anti 
cipations  in  Richmond. — THE  BATTLE  OF  GETTYSBURG. — First  Day's  Engagement. — 
A  Regiment  of  Corpses. — Charge  of  Gordon's  Brigade. — The  Nine  Mississippi 
Heroes. — The  Yankees  Driven  through  Gettysburg. — A  Fatal  Mistake  of  the  Con 
federates. — General  Lee's  Embarrassments. — THE  SECOND  DAY. — Cemetery  Hill. — 
Early's  Attack  Almost  a  Success. — Adventure  of  Wright's  Brigade. — THE  THIRD 
DAY. — Sublime  Terrors  of  the  Artillery. — Heroic  and  Ever-Memorable  Charge  of 
Pickett's  Division  on  the  Heights.— Half  a  Mile  of  Shot  and  Shell.—  Pickett's  Sup 
ports  Fail. — The  Recoil. — General  Lee's  Behavior. — His  Greatness  in  Disaster. — Im 
mense  Carnage. — Death  of  General  Barksdale,  "  the  Haughty  Rebel." — General  Lee's 
Retreat. — The  Affair  of  Williamsport. — Lee  Recrosses  the  Potomac. — Success  of  his 
Retreat. — Yankee  Misrepresentation. — Review  of  the  Pennsylvania  Campaign. — Half 
of  Lee's  Plans  Disconcerted  at  Richmond. — Results  of  the  Battle  of  Gettysburg  Ne 
gative. — Lee's  Retreat  Across  the  Potomac  an  Inconsequence. — Disappointment  in 
Richmond. — The  Budget  of  a  Single  Day  in  the  Confederate  Capital PAGE  13 


CHAPTEK  II. 

Vicksburg,  "  the  Heroic  City." — Its  Value  to  the  Confederacy. — An  Opportunity 
Lost  by  Butler.  —  Lieutenant-general  Pemberton. — A  Favorite  of  President  Da 
vis.— The  President's  Obstinacy.— Blindness  of  Pemberton  to  the  Enemy's  De 
signs. — His  Telegram  to  Johnston. — Plan  of  U.  S.  Grant.— Its  Daring. — THE  BATTLE 
OF  PORT  GIBSON.— Exposure  of  General  Bowen  by  Pemberton.— The  First  Mistake.— 
Pemberton's  Disregard  of  Johnston's  Orders. — Grant's  advance  against  Jackson. — 
Johnston's  Evacuation  of  Jackson. — His  Appreciation  of  the  Situation. — Urgent  Or 
ders  to  Pemberton.— A  Brilliant  Opportunity.— Pemberton's  Contumacy  and  Stupid 
ity. — His  Irretrievable  Error. — Yankee  Outrages  in  Jackson. — THE  BATTLE  OF  BAKER'S 
CREEK,  &c. — Stevenson's  Heroic  Fight. — Alleged  Dereliction  of  General  Loring. — 
His  Division  Cut  Off  in  the  Retreat. — Demoralization  of  Pemberton's  Troops. — The 
Enemy's  Assault  on  the  Big  Black.— Shameful  Behavior  of  the  Confederates.— A 


6  CONTENTS. 

Georgia  Hero. — Pemberton  and  the  Fugitives.— His  Return  to  Vicksburg. — Recrim 
inations  as  to  the  Disaster  of  the  Big  Black. — How  Pemberton  Was  in  the  Wrong. — 
Johnston  Orders  the  Evacuation  of  Vicksburg. — Pemberton's  Determination  to 
Hold  It .  PAGE  41 


CHAPTEE  III. 

The  Defences  of  Vicksburg. — Pemberton's  Force. — His  Troops  Reinspirited. — A 
Memorable  Appeal. — Grant's  Assault  on  the  Works. — Confidence  of  the  Yankees. — 
Their  Repulse  and  Losses. — Commencement  of  Siege  Operations. — Confidence  in 
Richmond. — Johnston's  Secret  Anticipation  of  the  Fall  of  Vicksburg. — His  Alleged 
Inability  to  Avert  it. — Critical  Condition  of  the  Confederate  Armies  in  Numbers. — 
Secret  Correspondence  of  Richmond  Officials. — Mr.  Seddon's  Bait  of  Flattery. — Suf 
ferings  of  the  Garrison  of  Vicksburg. — Johnston's  Attempt  to  Extricate  them. — Pro 
posed  Diversion  in  the  Trans-Mississippi. — Its  Failure. — A  Message  from  Pemberton. 
A  Gleam  of  Hope. — An  Important  Despatch  Miscarries. — The  Garrison  Unable  to 
Fight  Their  Way  Out. — But  Their  Condition  not  Extreme. — Pemberton's  Surrender 
on  the  Fourth  of  July. — Surprise  in  Richmond — Mendacity  of  the  Telegraph. — The 
Story  of  the  Rats  and  Mules. — Pemberton's  Statement  as  to  his  Supplies. — His  Ex 
planation  as  to  the  Day  of  Surrender. — The  last  Incident  of  Humiliation. — Behavior 
of  the  Vicksburg  Population. — A  Rival  of  "The  Beast." — Appearance  and  Manners 
of  the  City  under  Yankee  Rule.— Consequences  of  the  Fall  of  Vicksburg. — THE  YAN 
KEE  REOCCUPATION  OF  JACKSON. — Johnston's  Second  Evacuation. — The  Enemy's  Rav 
ages  in  Mississippi. — How  they  Compared  with  Lee's  Civilities  in  Pennsylvania. — 
THE  FALL  OF  PORT  HUDSON,  &c. — Enemy's  Capture  of  Yazoo  City. — THE  BATTLE 
OF  HELENA. — THE  TRANS-MISSISSIPPI. — Repulse  of  the  Confederates. — Abandonment 
of  Little  Rock. — The  Trials  and  Sufferings  of  the  Trans-Mississippi  Department. — 
Hindrnan's  Memorable  Rule. — Military  Autocracy. — The  Generous  and  Heroic  Spirit 
of  the  Trans-Mississippi PAGE  59 


CHAPTER  IY. 

Elasticity  of  the  Spirit  of  the  Confederacy.— What  it  Taught.— Decay  of  Confi 
dence  in  President  Davis's  Administration. — His  Affection  for  Pemberton. — A  Season 
of  Encouraging  Events. — THE  CAMPAIGN  IN  LOWER  LOUISIANA. — Capture  of  Brashear 
City. — The  Affair  of  Donaldson. — THE  SIEGE  OF  CHARLESTON. — Operations  of  the 
Enemy  on  Folly  Island. — General  Beauregard's  Embarrassments. — Assault  of  the 
Enemy  of  Fort  Wagner. — His  Foothold  on  Morris  Island. — Beauregard's  Designs. — 
Bombardment  of  Fort  Wagner. — Second  Repulse  of  the  Enemy's  Assault. — Gilmore's 
Insolent  Demand. — His  Attempt  to  Fire  Charleston. — A  Noble  Reply  from  Beaure- 
gard. — Bombardment  of  Fort  Sumter. — The  Fort  in  Ruins. — Evacuation  of  Morris 
Island  by  the  Confederates.— The  Yankee  Congratulations. — Devilish  Penalties  for 
"  the  Secession  City." — Dahlgren's  Part  of  the  Programme. — His  Night  Attack  on. 
Sumter. — His  Failure. — Safety  of  Charleston. — Bitterness  of  Yankee  Disappointment. 
—MORGAN'S  EXPEDITION  INTO  INDIANA  AND  OHIO. — His  Capture  of  Lebanon. — An 
Unnatural  Encounter. — Murder  of  Captain  Magennis.— The  Incursion  Through  Indi 
ana.— The  Yankee  Pursuit.— A  Chaplain's  Trick.— Operations  in  Ohio.— The  Affair 
of  Buffington  Island. — Morgan's  Attempt  to  Escape.— His  Capture  and  Imprison 
ment.— Results  of  his  Expedition,  Strategic  and  Material. — The  Value  of  Military 
Adventure... PAGE  81 


CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER  V. 

Contrast  between  our  Military  Fortunes  in  the  East  and  in  the  West.— Some 
Reasons  for  our  Success  in  Virginia.— Her  Hearty  Co-operation  with  the  Confederate 
Authorities.— Her  Contributions  to  the  War.— General  Bragg's  Situation  in  Tennes 
see. — Confederate  criticisms  on  General  Eosecrans. — Opinion  of  the  "  Chattanooga 
Rebel." — An  Extensive  Movement  Contemplated  by  Rosecrans. — Bragg's  Retreat  to 
Chattanooga. — The  Yankees  on  a  Double  Line  of  Operations. — Buckner's  Evacuation 
of  Knoxville.  THE  SURRENDER  OF  CUMBERLAND  GAP. — President  Davis's  Comment 
on  the  Surrender. — THE  BATTLES  or  CHICKAMAUGA. — Braggs'  Evacuation  of  Chatta 
nooga. — Topography  of  the  Ba.ttle.-field. — Thomas's  Column  of  Yankees  in  McLemore's 
Cove. — Disobedience  of  Orders  by  Lieutenant-general  Hill  of  the  Confederates. — 
Bragg's  Orders  to  Lieutenant-general  Polk. — Two  Opportunities  Lost.  Note: 
Bragg's  Secret  and  Official  Report  of  the  Miscarriage  of  His  Plans. — The  First  Day's 
Engagement  on  the  Chickamauga. — Second  Day. — General  Polk's  Fight  on  our 
Right. — Longstreet's  Successful  Attack  on  the  Left. — The  Grand  Charge. — Rout  of 
the  Enemy. — Longstreet's  Message  to  Bragg. — Forrest  Up  a  Tree. — Bragg  Declines  to 
Pursue. — His  Hesitation  and  Error. — His  Movement  upon  Chattanooga. — Boast  of 
Rosecrans. — An  Empty  Victory  for  the  Confederates. — Bragg's  Awkward  Pause. — 
Discussions  of  the  Campaign. — His  Supposed  Investment  of  Chattanooga. — Two 
Blunders  of  the  Confederate  Commander. — Chickamauga  a  Second  Edition  of  Bull 
Run.  Note  :  Observations  of  a  General  Officer  of  the  Confederate  States  Army  on 
the  Campaign  in  the  West PAGE  106 


CHAPTER  VI. 

Political  Movements  in  the  Fall  of  1863.— The  "  Peace  Party"  in  the  North.— The 
Yankee  Fall  Elections.— The  War  Democrats  in  the  North.— The  South's  Worst 
Enemies. — Yankee  Self-Glorification. — Farragut's  Dinner-Party. — The  Russian  Ban 
quet. — Russia  and  Yankeedom. — The  Poles  and  the  Confederates. — THE  POLITICAL 
TROUBLES  IN  KENTUCKY. — Bramlette  and  Wickcliffe. — The  Democratic  Platform  in 
Kentucky. — Political  Ambidexterity. — Burnside'a  Despotic  Orders. — The  Kentucky 
"Board  of  Trade."— An  Election  by  Bayonets.— The  Fate  of  Kentucky  Sealed.— OUR 
•^EUROPEAN  RELATIONS. — Dismissal  of  the  Foreign  Consuls  in  the  Confederacy. — 
<  Seizure  of  the  Confederate  "  Rams"  in  England. — The  Confederate  Privateers. — 
Their  Achievements. ^British  Interests  in  Privateering. — The  Profits  of  So-called 
"  Neutrality." — NAVAL  AFFAIRS  OF  THE  CONFEDERACY. — Embarrassments  of  Our 
Naval  Enterprise. — The  Naval  Structures  of  the  Confederates. — LEE'S  FLANK  MOVE 
MENT  IN  VIRGINIA. — Affair  of  Bristoe  Station. — Failure  of  Lee's  Plans. — Meade's 
Escape  to  Centreville. — Imboden's-Operations  in  the  Valley. — Capture  of  Charlestown. 
— OPERATIONS  AT  RAPPAHANNOCK  BRIDGE. — Kelley's  Ford.— Surprise  and  Capture  of 
Hayes'  and  Hoke's  Brigades. — Gallantry  of  Colonel  Godwin. — Lee's  Army  on  the 
Rapidan. — THE  AFFAIR  OF  GERMANIA  FORD. — Meade  Foiled. — The  "On-to-Rich- 
mond"  Delayed PAGE  134 


CHAPTER  YIL 

The  Chattanooga  Lines. — Grant's  Command. — The  Military  Division  of  the  Missis 
sippi. — Scarcity  of  Supplies  in  Chattanooga. — Wheeler's  Raid. — Grant's  Plans. — He 
Opens  the  Communications  of  Chattanooga. — THE  AFFAIR  OF  LOOKOUT  VALLEY. — 
Relief  of  Chattanooga.— THE  BATTLE  OF  MISSIONARY  RIDGE.— Bragg's  Unfortunate 


8  CONTENTS.  • 

Detachment  of  Longstreet's  Force. — His  Evacuation  of  Lookout  Mountain. — The 
Attack  on  Missionary  Ridge. — Hardee's  Gallant  Resistance. — Rout  and  Panic  of  the 
Confederates. — President  Davis's  First  Reproof  of  the  Confederate  Troops. — Bragg's 
Retreat  to  Dalton. — Cleburne's  Gallant  Afi'air. — LONGSTREET'S  EXPEDITION  AGAINST 
KNOXVILLE. — More  of  Bragg's  Mismanagement.— Insufficiency  of  Longstreet's  Force. 
— Difficulty  in  Obtaining  Supplies. — Hhj  Investment  of  Knoxville. — An  Incident  of 
Personal  Gallantry. — Daring  of  an  English  Volunteer. — Longstreet's  Plans  Discon 
certed. — The  Assault  on  Fort  Sanders. — Devotion  of  Longstreet's  Veterans.— The 
Yankee  "  Wire-net."-— The  Fatal  Ditch.— Longstreet's  Masterly  Retreat.— His  Posi 
tion  in  Northeastern  Tennessee. — He  Winters  his  Army  there. — THE  AFFAIR  OF 
SABINE  PASS,  TEXAS. — THE  TRANS-MISSISSIPPI. — Franklin's  Expedition  Defeated. — 
The  Upper  Portions  of  the  Trans-Mississippi. — The  Missouri  "  Guerillas." — Quan- 
trell. — Romantic  Incidents. — THE  VIRGINIA-TENNESSEE  FRONTIER. — Operations  of 
General  Sam  Jones. — An  Engagement  near  Warm  Springs. — The  Affair  of  Rogers- 
ville. — BATTLE  OF  DROOP  MOUNTAIN. — The  Enemy  Baffled. — Averill's  Great  Decem 
ber  Raid. — The  Pursuit. — THE  NORTH  CAROLINA  SWAMPS. — The  Negro  Banditti  in  the 
Swamps. — Wild,  Butler's  "Jackal." — His  Murder  of  Daniel  Bright. — Confederate 
Women  in  Irons. — Cowardice  and  Ferocity  of  the  Yankees PAGE  153 


CHAPTEK  YIII. 

The  President's  Declaration  to  the  Confederate  Congress  of  1868-64.— "Want  of 
Capacity"  in  the  Confederate  Authorities. — Character  of  Jefferson  Davis. — Official 
Shiftlessness  at  Richmond. — Early  Prognostications  of  the  War. — The  "  Statesman 
ship"  of  the  Confederates. — Ludicrous  Errors  of  Confederate  Leaders. — What  "King 
Cotton"  might  have  done. — 'Gross  Mismanagement  of  the  Confederate  Finances. — Mr. 
Memminger's  Maladministration. — The  Moral  Evils  of  an  Expanded  Currency. — The 
Military  Situation  in  December. — Secretary  Seddon's  Shameful  Confession. — "De- 
magogism"  in  the  Confederate  War  Department.— Seddon's  Propositions. — Military 
"  Substitutes." — An  Act  of  Perfidy. — Bullying  in  Congress. — Spirit  of  the  Confederate 
Soldiery. — LINCOLN'S  "PEACE PROCLAMATION." — Its  Stupidity,  Insolence,  and  Out-  . 
rage. — How  the  Confederates  Replied  to  it. — A  New  Appeal  Against  "Recon 
struction." — THE  SLAVERY  QUESTION  IN  THE  WAR. — A  French  Opinion. — The 
Abolitionists  Unmasked. — Decay  of  European  Sympathy  with  Them. — Review  of 
Lincoln's  "  Emancipation"  Policy. — The  Arming  of  the  Blacks. — The  Negro  Coloni 
zation  Schemes. — Experiments  of  New  England  "Civilization"  in  Louisiana. — 
Frightful  Mortality  of  "  Freedmen." — The  Appalling  Statistics  of  Emancipation. — 
The  Contraband  Camps  in  the  Mississippi  Valley. — Pictures  of  Yankee  Philanthropy. 
—"Slavery"  Tested  by  the  War.— The  Confederates  the  True  Friends  of  the  African 
Laborer. — The  System  of  Negro  Servitude  in  the  Confederacy. — The  "  War-to-the- 
Knife"  Party  in  the  North. — HISTORY  OF  THE  "  RETALIATION"  POLICY. — The  Outrages 
of  Yankee  WTarfare. — President  Davis's  Sentimentalism. — The  Record  of  his  Unpar 
donable  and  Unparalleled  Weakness.— A  Peep  into  Yankee  Prisons.— The  Torture- 
Houses  of  the  North. — Captain  Morgan's  Experience  Among  "the  Convict-Drivers." 
— President  Davis's  Bluster.— His  Two  Faces.— Moral  Effects  of  Submission  to  Yankee 
Outrage. — The  Rival  Administrations  in  December  1863. — Richmond  and  Washing 
ton. — Mr.  Lincoln's  Gaiety. — New  Issues  for  the  Confederacy PAGE  174 


CHAPTEK  IX. 

The  Importance  of  the  Winter  Campaigns  of  the  War.— A  Series  of  Remarkable 
Events.  —  Encouragement  of  the  Confederacy.  —  ROSSER'S  RAID.  —  A  Magnificent 
Prize.— PICKETT'S  EXPEDITION  AGAINST  NEWBERN.— The  Fight  on  Bachelor's  Creek.— 


CONTENTS. 


0 


Destruction  of  the  Yankee  Gunboat  "  Underwriter."— The  Brilliant  Exploit  of  Com 
mander  Wood.— Results  of  the  Expedition.— THE  AFFAIR  OF  JOHN'S  ISLAND.— General 
Wise's  Fight. — THE  BATTLE  OF  OCEAN  POND. — History  of  the  Yankee  Expeditions  into 
Florida.— Lincoln's  Designs  upon  Florida.— Their  Utter  Defeat.— Political  Jugglery 
of  Seymour's  Expedition.— Price  of  "  Three  Electoral  Votes."— SHERMAN'S  EXPEDI 
TION  IN  THE  SOUTHWEST.— What  it  Contemplated. — Grant's  Extensive  Designs. — The 
Strategic  Triangle. — Grant's  Proposed  Removal  of  the  Mississippi  River. — Polk's  Re 
treat  into  Alabama.— Forrest's  Heroic  Enterprise.— His  Defeat  of  Smith's  and  Grier- 
Bon's  Columns. — Sherman's  Retreat  to  Vicksburg. — His  Disgraceful  Failure. — The 
Yankee  Campaign  in  the  West  Disconcerted.— The  Lines  in  North  Georgia.— Repulse 
of  the  Yankees PAGE  210 


CHAPTER  X. 

Auspicious  Signs  of  the  Spring  of  1864. — Military  Successes  of  the  Confederates. — 
Improvements  in  the  Internal  Polity  of  the  Confederacy — Two  Important  Measure* 
of  Legislation. — Revolution  of  our  Finances. — Enlargement  of  the  Conscription. — 
Theory  of  the  New  Military  Law. — A  Blot  on  the  Political  Record  of  the  Confeder 
acy. — Qualified  Suspension  of  the  Habeas  Corpus. — An  Infamous  Edict,  but  a  "  Dead- 
letter." — An  Official  Libel  upon  the  Confederacy. — The  Real  Condition  of  Civil 
Liberty  in  the  South. — The  Conscription  not  properly  a  Measure  of  Force. — Im 
pressments  but  a  System  of  Patriotic  Contribution. — Development  of  the  Yankee 
Government  into  Despotism. — An  Explanation  of  this. — The  Essence  of  Despotism 
in  One  Yankee  Statute. — MILITARY  RESOURCES  OF  THE  CONFEDERACY. — Its  Military 
System,  the  Best  and  Most  Elastic  in  the  World.— The  War  Conducted  on  A  Volun 
tary  £asis. — Supplies. — Scarcity  of  Meat. — The  Grain  Product.— Two  Centres  of  Sup 
plies. — A  Dream  of  Yankee  Hate. — Great  Natural  Resources  of  the  North. — Summary 
of  the  Yankee  Military  Drafts. — Tonnage  of  the  Yankee  Navy. — The  Yankee  War 
Debt. — Economic  Effects  of  the  War. — Its  Effects  on  European  Industry. — Yankee 
Conquest  of  the  South  an  Impossibility. — A  Remarkable  Incident  of  the  War. — 
DAHLGREN'S  RAID  AROUND  RICHMOND. — Kilpatrick's  and  Custar's  Parts  of  the  Expe 
dition. — Dahlgren  and  his  Negro  Guide. — His  "Braves"  Whipped  by  the  Richmond 
Clerks  and  Artisans. — Death  of  the  Marauder. — Revelation  of  his  Infamous  Designs. 
— Copy  and  History  of ''the  Dahlgren  Papers." — A  Characteristic  Yankee  Apothe 
osis. — Ridiculous  and  Infamous  Behavior  of  the  Confederate  Authorities. — A  Bru 
tal  and  Savage  Threat.— President  Davis  in  Melodrama PAGE  228 


CHAPTER  XI. 

The  Current  of  Confederate  Victories. — THE  RED  RIVER  EXPEDITION. — Banks'  Am 
bitious  Designs. — Condition  of  the  Confederates  West  of  the  Mississippi. — Banks' 
Extensive  Preparations. — A  Gala  Day  at  Vicksburg. — Yankee  Capture  of  Fort  De 
Russy. — Occupation  of  Alexandria. — Porter's  Warfare  and  Pillage. — Banks'  Con 
tinued  Advance.— Shreveport,  the  Grand  Objective  Point. — Kirby  Smith's  Designs. — 
General  Green's  Cavalry  Fight. — BATTLE  OF  MANSFIELD. — Success  of  the  Confeder 
ates. — BATTLE  OF  PLEASANT  HILL. — The  Heroic  and  Devoted  Charge  of  the  Confeder 
ates.— The  Scene  on  the  Hill.— Banks  Fatally  Defeated.— Price's  Capture  of  Yankee 
Trains. — Grand  Results  of  Kirby  Smith's  Campaign. — Banks  in  Disgrace. — Yankee 
Tenure  of  Louisiana. — FORREST'S  EXPEDITION  INTO  KENTUCKY. — His  Gallant  Assault 
on  Fort  Pillow.— The  Yankee  Story  of  "  Massacre."— Capture  of  Union  City.— Con 
federate  Occupation  of  Paducah.— Chastisement  of  the  Yankees  on  their  own  Theatre 


10  CONTENTS. 

of  Outrages — CAPTURE  OF  PLYMOUTH,  N.  C. — General  Hoke's  Expedition. — Capture 
of  "Fort  Wesse!."— Exploit  of  the  "  Albemarle."— The  Assaults  upon  the  Town.— 
Fruits  of  its  Capture. — The  Yankees  in  North  Carolina PAGE  246 


CHAPTEK  XII. 

Close  of  the  Third  Year  of  the  "War. — Sketch  of  the  Suosequent  Operations  in  Vir 
ginia  and  Georgia. — GRANT'S  "  ON-TO-RICHMOND." — The  Combination  Against  the 
Confederate  Capital. — THE  BATTLES  OF  THE  WILDERNESS. — A  Thrilling  Crisis. — Grant 
on  the  Verge  of  Rout. — His  First  Design  Baffled. — THE  BATTLES  OF  SPOTTSYLVANIA 
COURT-HOUSE. — Death  of  General  Sedgwiek.— THE  CARNAGE  OF  MAY  THE  12TH. — Five 
Battles  in  Six  Days. — Grunt's  Obstinacy. — "  The  Butcher." — Sheridan's  Expedition. 
— Death  of  General  "Jeb"  Stuart. — Butler's  Operations  on  the  South  Side  of  the 
James.—"  The  Beast"  at  the  Back-Door  of  Richmond. — He  is  Driven  to  Bermuda 
Hundred  by  Beauregard. — Defeat  of  Sigel  in  the  Valley. — Grant's  Movement  Down 
the  Valley  of  the  Rappahannock. — His  Passage  of  the  Pamunkey. — Re-organization  of 
General  Lee's  Lines. — Grant's  Favorite  Tactics. — Yankee  Exultation  at  his  Approach 
to  Richmond — Caricatures  of  the  Confederacy. — A  Hasty  Apotheosis. — A  True  The 
ory  of  Grant's  "  Flank  Movements." — His  Occupation  of  McClellan's  Old  l..ines. — THE 
BATTLE  OF  THE  CHICKAHOMINY  OR  COLD  HARBOR. — A  Confederate.  Victory  in  Ten 
Minutes. — What  Had  Become  of  Yankee  Exultation. — Review  of  the  Rival  Routes  to 
Richmond. — Grant  Crosses  the  James  River. — His  Second  Grand  Combination  Against 
Richmond. — Hunter's  Capture  of  Staunton. — THE  BATTLES  OF  PETERSRCRG. — General 
Wise's  Heroic  Address. — Engagement  of  16th  June. — Grand  Assault  of  18th  June. — 
on  "  the  Cockade  City." — A  Decisive  defeat  of  the  Yankees. — Engagement  at  Port 
Walthal  Junction — Sheridan's  Defeat  Near  Gordonsville.  —  Hunter's  Repulse  at 
Lynchburg. — Two  Affairs  on  the  Weldon  Railroad. — Grant's  Second  Combination  a 
Complete  Failure. — Discouragement  of  the  North. — The  Gold  Barometer. — Secretary 
Chase's  Declaration. — SHKRMAN'S  "  ON-TO- ATLANTA." — His  Flanking  Movement. — 
Engagement  in  Resaca  Valley. — Johnston's  Retreat. — Engagement  at  New  Hope. — 
Johnston's  Telegram  to  Richmond. — Defeat  of  Sturgis's  Expedition  in  Mississippi. — 
BATTLE  OF  KENESAW  MOUNTAIN. — Sherman's  Successful  Strategy. — The  Confederates 
Fall  Back  to  Atlanta. — THE  BATTLES  OF  ATLANTA. — Hood's  Gallant  Defence. —  .... 
The  Military  Situation  in  July,  1864. — Grant's  Failure. — His  Consumption  of  Troops. 
— Review  of  Yankee  Atrocities  in  the  Summer  Campaign  of  1864. — Sherman's  Char 
acter.— His  Letter  on  "  Wild  Beasts."— His  War  on  Factory  Girls.— Sufferings  of 
Confederate  Women  and  Children. — Ravages  in  Georgia.— Hunter's  Vandalism  in 
Virginia.—"  The  Avengers  of  Fort  Pillow."— Sturgis  and  his  Demons.— The  Spirit  of 
the  Confederates. —  .  .  .  Some  Words  on  "Peace  Negotiations." — A  Piratical  Prop- > 
osition  and  an  Infamous  Bribe. — The  Heroic  JChoice  of  the  Confederates PAGE  261 


CHAPTEK   XIII. 


AMERICAN    IDEAS  I     A   REVIEW   OF    THE   WAK. 

Sentimental  Regrets  concerning  American  History.^^he  European  Opinion  of 
"  State"  Institutions. — Calhoun,  the  Great  Political  Scholar  of  America. — His  Doc 
trines. —  Conservatism  of  "Nullification." — Its  "Union"  Sentiment. — Brilliant  Vision 
of  the  South  Carolina  Statesman. — Webster,  the  Representative  of  the  Imperfect  and 
Insolent  "  Education"  of  New  England.— Yankee  Libels  in  the  shape  of  Party 
Nomenclature.— Influence  of  State  Institutions.— How  they  were  Auxiliary  to  the 


CONTENTS.  11 

•  Union. — The  Moral  Veneration  of  the  Union  Peculiarly  a.  Sentiment  of  the  South. — 
"What  the  South  had  done  for  the  Union. — Senator  Hammond's  Speech. — The  States 
not  Schools  of  Provincialism  and  Estrangement. — The  Development  of  America,  a 
North  and  South,  not  Hostile  States. — Peculiar  Ideas  of  Yankee  Civilization. — Ideas 
Nursed  in  "Free  Schools." — Yankee  Materialism. — How  it  lias  Developed  in  the 
War. — Yankee  Falsehoods  and  Yankee  Cruelties. — His  Commercial  Politics. — Price 
of  his  Liberties. — Ideas  of  the  Confederates  in  the  War. — How  the  Washington 
Routine  was  introduced.  —  The  Richmond  Government,  Weak  and  Negative. — 
No  Political  Novelty  in  the  Confederacy. — The  Future  of  Confederate  Ideas. — •  ' 
Intellectual  Barrenness  of  the  War. — Material  of  the  Confederate  Army.— The 
Birth  of  Great  Ideas.— The  Old  Political  Idolators.— The  Recompense  of  Suf 
fering PAGE  287  / 

THE  BATTLE  OF  THE  WILDERNESS. — Correspondence  of  the  London  Herald. .  PAGE  303 


APPENDIX. 

JAIL  JOURNAL  IN  FORT  WARREN,  ETC. 

CHAPTEE  I. 

I 

RUNNING  THE  BLOCKADE.— The  "  Greyhound."— Passing  the  Blockade  Lines.— The 
Capture.— Yankee  Courtesy.— Off  Fortress  Monroe PAGE  323 

CHAPTER   II. 

CURIOSITIES  OF  THE  YANKEE  BLOCKADE.— Correspondence  with  Lord  Lyons,  PAGE  330 

CHAPTER  III. 

A  WEEK  IN  BOSTON.— Introduction  to  the  U.  S.  Marshal.— In  the  Streets  of  Boston : 
Two  Spectacles.— A  Circle  of  Secessionists.— The  "Hub  of  the  Universe.".  PAGE  340 

CHAPTER  IV. 

COMMITMENT  TO  FORT  WARREN.— Horrors  of  the  Yankee  Bastile.— Torture  of  "  A 
Brutal  Villain."— A  Letter  to  Secretary  Welles pAGK  347 

CHAPTER  V. 

JOURNAL  NOTES  IN  PRISON.— Precious  Tributes  of  Sympathy.— Portrait  of  the  Yan 
kee.— A  New  England  Shepherd.— Sufferings  and  Reflections.— Fourth  of  July  in 
Warren ..PAG/853 


i 

« 


12  CONTENTS. 


CHAPTEK  VI. 

^ 

JOTTRNAL  NOTES  CONTINUED. — Life  in  the  Casemates. — Some  of  the  Secrets  of 
Foreign  "  Neutrality."y-Southern  "Aristocracy." — My  Boston  Benefactress. — Lin- 
colniana.— Massachusetts  "  Chivalry." PAGE  359 


CHAPTEK  VII. 

"HAVE  WE  A  GOVERNMENT?" — A  Commentary  on  " Ketaliation." PAGE  868 

CHAPTEK  VIII. 

AN  EPISODE  IN  PRISON.— A  Council  in  the  Casemates PAGE  366 

CHAPTEK  IX. 

JOURNAL  NOTES  RESUMED. — Protest  to  Lord  Lyons. — "Peace  Negotiations." — Com 
forting  Words  of  a  Boston  Lady PAGE  871 

CHAPTEK  X. 

JOURNAL  NOTES  CONTINUED. — A  Yankee's  Confession :  Confederate  Civilization. — 
A  u  Map  of  Busy  Life"  in  Boston. —  .  .  .  Sickness  and  Reflections  in  Prison : 
Female  Philosophy  on  the  "War PAGE  375 

CHAPTEK  XI. 

Our  or  PRISON. — My  Parole. — In  Yankee  Atmosphere. — A  Letter  from  Boston. — 
Waiting PAGE  382 

CHRONOLOGY.  .       PAGE  387 


I  UNIVERSITY  OF 

\.  I 


THE  THIRD  YEAR  OF  THE  WAR. 


CHAPTER  I. 

Eeview  of  the  Battle  of  Chancellorsville.— Two  Defects  in  the  Victory  of  the  Con 
federates.—"  The  Finest  Army  on  the  Planet."— Analysis  of  the  Victory.— General- 
chip  of  Lee. — Services  and  Character  of  the  great  Confederate  Leader. — His  Com 
monplaces  and  his  Virtues.— The  Situation  in  Virginia. — Lee's  Preparations  for  the 
Summer  Campaign. — Hooker  to  be  Maneuvered  out  of  Virginia. — Eeorganization  of 
Lee's  Army.— The  Affair  of  Brandy  Station.— THE  CAPTURE  OF  WINCHESTER.— The 
Aifair  of  Aldie's  Station. — Lee's  Army  Crossing  the  Potomac. — Invasion  of  Pennsyl 
vania. — Alarm  in  the  North. — Hooker  Out-Generalled  and  Removed. — The  Mild 
Warfare  of  the  Confederate  Invaders. — Southern  "Chivalry." — General  Lee's  Error. 
— His  Splendid  March  from  Culpepper  Court  House  to  Gettysburg. — Feverish  Anti 
cipations  in  Richmond. — THE  BATTLE  OF  GETTYSBURG. — First  Day's  Engagement. — 
A  Regiment  of  Corpses. — Charge  of  Gordon's  Brigade. — The  Nine  Mississippi 
Heroes. — The  Yankees  Driven  through  Gettysburg. — A  Fatal  Mistake  of  the  Con 
federates. — General  Lee's  Embarrassments. — THE  SECOND  DAY. — Cemetery  Hill. — 
Early's  Attack  Almost  a  Success. — Adventure  of  Wright's  Brigade. — THE  THIRD 
DAY. — Sublime  Terrors  of  the  Artillery. — Heroic  and  Ever-Memorable  Charge  of 
Pickett's  Division  on  the  Heights.— Half  a  Mile  of  Shot  and  Shell.— Pickett's  Sup 
ports  Fail. — The  Recoil.— General  Lee's  Behavior. — His  Greatness  in  Disaster. — Im 
mense  Carnage. — Death  of  General  Barksdale,  "  the  Haughty  Rebel." — General  Lee's 
Retreat. — The  Affair  of  Williamsport. — Lee  Recrosses  the  Potomac. — Success  of  his 
Retreat. — Yankee  Misrepresentation. — Review  of  the  Pennsylvania  Campaign. — Half 
of  Lee's  Plans  Disconcerted  at  Richmond. — Results  of  the  Battle  of  Gettysburg  Ne 
gative. — Lee's  Retreat  Across  the  Potomac  an  Inconsequence. — Disappointment  in 
Richmond.— The  Budget  of  a  Single  Day  in  the  Confederate  Capital. 

IN  the  close  of  a  former  volume,  we  proposed  to  open  the 
Third  Year  of  the  War  with  a  revised  and  extended  account 
of  the  battles  fought  between  Fredericksburg  and  Chancellors 
ville,  on  the  1st,  2d,  3d  and  4th  of  May,  1863.  On  examina 
tion,  however,  of  what  has  already  been  written  of  these 
events,  we  find  so  little  of  authentic  detail  to  add  to  it,  that  we 
shall  content  ourselves  with  a  general  reference  to  this  impor 
tant  series  of  engagements  (known  collectively  as  the  battle  of 
Chancellorsville),  and  a  concise  statement  of  results. 

We  have  here  again  the  old  story  of  a  great  and  bloody 
battle,  defective  in  conclusion  and  barren  in  practical  results. 
The  Confederates  had  failed  to  capture  Sedgwick's  corps  by 


14:  THE   THIRD   YEAR   OF   THE   WAR. 

not  seizing  Banks'  Ford.  The  capture  of  his  whole  corps 
would  then  have  been  inevitable,  for  we  held  the  access  to 
Fredericksburg  guarded.  As  it  was,  Hooker  was  able  to  cross 
the  river  under  cover  of  night  with  all  of  his  army  but  what 
had  been  lost  in  the  casualties  of  the  fight ;  and  the  Southern 
public  were  again  treated  to  the  old  excuse  that  we  had  neither 
the  men  nor  the  facilities  to  pursue  him. 

But,  notwithstanding  these  deficiencies  of  our  victory,  it  was 
a  great  and  brilliant  one,  and  it  gave  the  Confederacy  occasion 
of  pride  second  to  none  in  the  war.  The  Confederates  had 
whipped  what  Hooker  entitled  "  the  finest  army  on  the  planet." 
They  had  done  this  with  an  effective  fighting  force  which,  com 
pared  with  that  of  the  onemy,  was  as  three  to  ten.  They  had 
put  thirty  thousand  of  the  enemy  hors  du  combat,  while  our 
own  casualties  did  not  foot  up  more  than  one-third  of  that 
number.  This  battle,  more  than  anything  else,  confirmed  the 
fame  of  General  Lee  ;  for,  however  it  had  failed  in  accomplish 
ing  all  that  was  possible,  it  was  at  least  a  victory  won  against 
an  enemy  of  superior  numbers,  who  had  the  advantage  of  the 
initiative  and  naturally  secured  that  of  position. 

General  Hooker  had  come  with  eight  days'  rations  and  a  plan 
of  battle  combining  all  that  was  essential  on  paper  to  a  com 
plete  success.  General  Lee  had  to  watch  the  movements  of 
Hooker  until  they  were  developed  ;  to  arrest  his  progress  by 
attack  ;  to  engage  him  at  the  same  time  with  a  flank  movement 
with  a  portion  of  his  forces ;  and  then  to  transfer  his  blows  to 
Sedgwick.  All  this  was  done  with  a  readiness  of  combination 
that  showed  a  high  order  of  military  ability.  Hooker  was  de 
feated  by  two  critical  circumstances :  the  flank  movement  of 
Jackson,  executed  with  signal  rapidity  and  decision,  and  the 
failure  of  Sedgwick  to  effect  a  junction.  It  was  these  move 
ments  and  interpositions  directed  by  Lee  which  ranked  him 
among  the  greatest  of  modern  strategists.  He  was  now  recog 
nized  as  the  master  military  mind  of  the  Confederacy. 

General  Lee  had,  by  a  perceptible  progress,  risen  to  be  one 
of  the  most  remarkable  men  of  the  revolution.  His  military 
life  had  been  one  of  steady  advancement.  He  had  graduated 
at  West  Point  in  1829,  at  the  head  of  his  class  ;  and  it  is  said 
that,  in  that  severe  school  and  early  test  of  the  soldier,  he  had 
never  been  marked  with  a  demerit  or  had  received  a  repri- 


THE   THIRD   YEAR    OF   THE   WAR.  15 

inand.  He  had  twice  been  brevetted  in  the  Mexican  war.  For 
thirty  years  he  had  served  the  United  States,  and  the  period  of 
disunion  found  him  lieutenant-colonel  of  that  famous  regiment 
of  cavalry  of  which  Sydney  Johnson  was  colonel. 

Upon  the  secession  of  Virginia  he  was  appointed  commander- 
in-chief  of  her  forces,  and  organized  an  army  with  a  system  and 
rapidity  that  at  once  surprised  and  gratified  the  public.  When 
President  Davis  made  his  appointments  of  generals,  he  was  the 
third  on  the  list :  General  Cooper  being  first,  and  General 
Sydney  Johnson  second.  The  appointments  were  made  with 
reference  to  the  rank  held  by  eacli  officer  in  the  old  army.  The 
unfortunate  campaign  of  General  Lee  in  Western  Yirginia  in 
the  first  year  of  the  war  threw  a  shadow  on  his  fame  ;  it  disap 
pointed  his  admirers  and  occasioned  a  very  general  denuncia 
tion  of  his  ability.  The  battles  around  Kichmond  secured  his 
fame.  There  was,  in  fact,  but  little  military  merit  in  them  ; 
but  there  was  a  great  success,  and  results  alone  are  the  stand 
ards  of  popular  appreciation.  It  was  when  General  Lee  moved 
out  to  the  line  of  the  Rappahannock  that  the  true  display  of 
his  abilities  commenced;  and  his  title  to  a  substantial  and 
abiding  fame  he  had  now  crowned  with  the  victory  of 
Chancellorsville. 

No  one  had  ever  accused  General  Lee  of  "  genius."  A 
sedate,  methodical  man,  putting  duty  before  everything  else, 
illustrating  the  unselfish  and  Christian  orders  of  virtue,  almost 
sublime  in  his  magnanimity,  and  uniting  with  these  qualities 
a  fair  intellectual  ability  and  an  excellent  practical  judgment, 
this  modern  copy  of  Washington  had  nothing  with  which  to 
dazzle  mankind,  but  much  with  which  to  win  its  sober  admira 
tion.  It  has  often  been  remarked  how  entirely  limited  by  pro 
fessional  routine  was  the  circle  of  intellectual  accomplishments 
in  the  old  army  of  the  United  States.  Thirty  years  in  this 
school  had  not  made  General  Lee  an  "Admirable  Crichton." 
Outside  of  his  profession,  his  conversation  was  limited  to  a  few 
commonplaces ;  he  knew  nothing  of  literature,  and  never 
attempted  to  draw  an  illustration  from  history.  But  the 
stranger  who  was  at  first  shocked  at  such  poverty  of  accom 
plishments  in  one  so  famous  was  soon  won  to  admiration  by 
the  charming  simplicity  of  a  man  who  knew  but  little  out 
side  of  the  line  of  his  duty,  but  in  that  was  pre-eminently  able 


16  THE   THIRD   YEAR   OF   THE   WAR. 

and  thoroughly  heroic.  It  may  be  said  of  him  that  he  was  one 
of  those  few  self-depreciating  men  whose  magnanimity  was  not 
sentimental,  and  whose  modesty  was  not  unmanly. 

In  taking  up  the  thread  of  our  story  after  the  battle  of  Chan 
cellors  ville,  we  must  now  follow  this  great  commander  in  one 
of  the  most  extraordinary  movements  of  the  war,  and  to  one 
of  its  most  critical  and  imposing  fields. 

A  great  battle  had  now  been  twice  fought  on  the  line  of  the 
Rappahannock  with  no  other  effect  than  driving  the  enemy 
back  to  the  hills  of  Stafford.  The  position  was  one  in  which 
he  could  not  be  attacked  to  advantage.  It  was  on  this  reflec 
tion  that  General  Lee  resolved  to  maneuver  Hooker  out  of  Vir 
ginia,  to  clear  the  Shenandoah  Valley  of  the  troops  of  the 
enemy,  and  to  renew  the  experiment  of  the  transfer  of  hostili 
ties  north  of  the  Potomac.  It  was  a  blow  to  the  summer  cam 
paign  of  the  enemy,  calculated  to  disarrange  it  and  relieve 
other  parts  of  the  Confederacy,  but,  above  all,  aimed  at  the 
prize  of  a  great  victory  on  Northern  soil,  long  the  aspiration 
of  the  Southern  public. 

The  movement  commenced  on  the  3d  of  June.  The  army 
of  Northern  Virginia  had  been  thoroughly  reorganized,  and 
the  question  of  Stonewall  Jackson's  successor  had  been  deter 
mined  to  the  satisfaction  of  the  country.  About  the  20th  of 
May  the  President  commissioned  both  Major-generals  R.  S. 
Ewell  and  A.  P.  Hill  as  lieutenant-generals  in  the  army  of 
Northern  Virginia.  To  each  of  these  generals  a  corps  was 
assigned,  consisting  of  three  divisions,  General  Longstreet,  for 
this  purpose,  parting  with  one  of  his  divisions  (Anderson's), 
and  A.  P.  Hill's  old  division  being  reduced  by  two  brigades, 
was  assigned  to  Major-general  "W.  D.  Pender.  The  two 
brigades  thus  taken  from  A.  P.  Hill's  division,  were  united 
with  Pettigrew's  and  another  North  Carolina  brigade,  and 
assigned  to  Major-general  Heth,  who,  with  Major-general 
Perider,  was  promoted  from  the  rank  of  brigadier-generals. 
General  A.  P.  Hill  was  assigned  to  the  command  of  this  corps, 
whilst  General  Ewell  retained  General  Jackson's  old  corps, 
consisting  of  Early's  division ;  Early  having  been  made  a 
Major-general  in  February,  and  receiving  command  of  Swell's 
old  division  ;  Rode's  division  and  Trimble's  division,  to  which 
'General  Edward  Johnson,  then  just  promoted  to  a  major-gen- 


THE   THIRD   TEAR    OF   THE    WAR.  17 

eralship,  was  assigned.  Five  of  the  six  major-generals  in  the 
infantry  department  of  this  army,  and  the  two  corps  generals, 
received  their  promotion  within  the  twelve  months  past. 

On  the  3d  of  June  McLaw's  division  of  Longstreet's  corps 
left  Fredericksburg  for  Culpepper  Court-house,  and  Hood's  di 
vision,  which  was  occupied  on  the  Rapidan,  marched  to  the 
same  place.  General  Ewell's  corps  took  up  the  line  of  march 
from  its  camps  near  Fredericksburg  on  the  morning  of  June 
4th,  moving  in  the  direction  of  Culpeper  Court-House.  On 
the  same  evening  Longstreet's  corps  moved  in  the  same  direc 
tion.  On  Friday,  June  5th,  the  enemy  crossed  a  force  below 
Fredericksburg,  near  the  Bernard  House,  as  if  they  intended  to 
move  once  more  upon  our  lines,  stretching  from  Hamilton's 
crossing  up  to  Fredericksburg.  Ewell  and  Longstreet  were 
halted  at  or  near  Locust  Grove,  in  Orange  county,  to  await  the 
issue  of  the  movement.  Hooker  having  made  this  diversion  in 
our  front,  set  himself  to  work  in  removing  his  stores  and  in 
retiring  his  troops  from  the  Stafford  heights. 

The  forces  of  Longstreet  and  Ewell  reached  Culppeper  Court 
house  by  the  8th,  at  which  point  the  cavalry,  under  General 
Stuart,  was  also  concentrated.  On  the  9th  a  large  force  of 
Federal  cavalry,  strongly  supported  by  infantry,  crossed  the 
Rappahannoek  at  Beverly's  and  Kelly's  fords,  and  attacked 
General  Stuart.  A  severe  engagement  ensued,  continuing 
from  early  in  the  morning  until  late  in  the  afternoon,  when 
the  enemy  was  forced  to  recross  the  river  with  heavy  loss, 
leaving  four  hundred  prisoners,  three  pieces  of  artillery,  and 
several  colors  in  our  hands. 

This  affair,  popularly  known  as  that  of  Brandy  Station,  was 
distinguished  by  an  extraordinary  exploit  of  Confederate  troops. 
In  one  of  the  charges  the  Eleventh  Virginia  cavalry,  under  Col 
onel  Lomax,  captured,  the  third  and  last  time,  a  battery  of  three 
pieces,  the  Sixth  regiment  and  Thirty-fifth  battalion  having  done 
so  before  them.  Pushing  his  success,  he  divided  his  regiment, 
sending  a  squadron  after  the  fugitives  east  of  the  railroad, 
while,  with  the  remainder  of  his  regiment,  he  assailed  three 
regiments  of  cavalry,  awaiting  him  at  the  depot.  He  routed 
this  whole  force  completely. 


IS  THE  THIRD  TEAR  OF  THE  WAR. 


THE  CAPTURE  OF  WINCHESTER. 

General  Jenkins,  with  his  cavalry  brigade,  had  been  ordered 
to  advance  towards  Winchester  to  co-operate  with  the  infantry 
in  the  proposed  expedition  into  the  Lower  Valley,  and  at  the 
same  time  General  Imboden  was  directed,  with  his  command, 
to  make  a  demonstration  in  the  direction  of  Romney,  in  order 
to  cover  the  movement  against  Winchester,  and  prevent  the 
enemy  at  that  place  from  being  reinforced  by  the  troops  on  the 
line  of  the  Baltimore  and  Ohio  railroad.  Both  of  these  officers 
were  in  position  when  General  Ewell  left  Culpepper  Court 
house,  on  the  16th.  Crossing  the  Shenandoah  near  Front 
Royal,  he  detachecj  Rodes'  division  to  Berryville  with  instruc 
tions,  after  dislodging  the  forces  stationed  there,  to  cut  off  the 
communication  between  Winchester  and  the  Potomac.  With 
the  divisions  of  Early  and  Johnson,  General  Ewell  advanced 
directly  upon  Winchester,  driving  the  enemy  into  his  works 
around  the  town  on  the  13th.  On  the  same  day  the  troops  at 
Berryville  fell  back  before  General  Rodes,  retreating  to  Win 
chester.  Lieutenant-general  Ewell,  after  consultation  with 
Major-general  Early,  determined  upon  a  flank  movement,  in 
order  to  reduce  the  town,  as  preferable  to  an  assault  in  front. 
General  Early  at  once  began  to  move  to  attack  a  work  of  the 
enemy  on  the  Pughtown  road,  on  a  hill  commanding  their  main 
fort. 

About  an  hour  before  sunset,  on  the  evening  of  the  14th  of 
June,  General  Early,  without  encountering  scout  or  picket,  was 
in  easy  cannon  range  of  the  enemy's  work,  which  it  was  his 
purpose  to  assault.  He  at  once  set  to  work  making  disposition 
of  his  forces  preparatory  to  the  attack.  Twenty  pieces  of  ar 
tillery  were  placed  in  position.  Hay's  Louisiana  brigade  was 
now  ordered  to  prepare  for  the  charge.  Our  artillery  opened 
a  vigorous  and  well-directed  fire  on  the  enemy's  works  and 
guns.  They  responded  with  considerable  spirit.  Then  Hay's 
Lousianians  moved  forward  to  the  music  of  our  cannon,  which 
were  still  playing  upon  the  works  of  the  enemy.  No  Yankee 
dared  show  his  head  above  the  parapet.  When  our  men  got 
within  two  hundred  yards  of  the  enemy's  works,  suddenly  our 
artillery  ceased.  And  now  Hay's  men  charge  over  an  abattis, 


THE   THIRD    YEAR   OF   THE   WAR.  19 

capturing  the  work  and  taking  six  pieces  of  artillery.  The 
enemy  vainly  attempted,  under  cover  of  the  guns  of  their  main 
fort,  to  form  in  the  bottom,  between  the  two  hills,  and  retake 
the  works,  but  Hay's  men  manned  and  turned  the  enemy's 
own  guns  upon  them.  A  few  well-directed  shots  quickly  broke 
them  in  confusion,  and  they  retreated  to  the  inner  fort. 

General  Edward  Johnston  had  been  ordered  to  move  to  the 
Martinsburg  road,  and  intercept  the  expected  retreat  of  the 
enemy.  His  dispositions  had  scarcely  been  made  when  the 
Yankees  charged,  with  loud  yelling,  hoping  to  break  through 
our  lines  and  escape.  The  battle  raged  for  nearly  an  hour,  our 
troops  (but  little  over  twelve  hundred  men)  being  greatly  out 
numbered.  Just,  however,  as  the  last  of  our  cartridges  gave  out, 
General  "Walker  came  up.  The  enemy  had  by  this  time  divided 
into  two  columns,  for  the  purpose  of  endeavoring  to  turn  both 
of  our  flanks  simultaneously.  General  Walker  charged  the 
party  attempting  to  turn  our  right  flank,  and  they  surrendered. 
General  Johnson  moved  the  two  Louisiana  regiments,  held  in 
reserve,  against  the  body  of  the  enemy  attempting  to  pass  our 
left  flank,  and  captured  the  greater  part  of  them.  Though 
Milroy  and  three  hundred  cavalry,  besides  some  straggling  in 
fantry,  made  their  escape,  our  captures  here  amounted  to  some 
twenty-five  hundred  men.  The  unfortunate  Yankee  com 
mander  fled  to  Harper's  Ferry  with  his  small  party  of  fugi 
tives. 

General  Rodes  marched  from  Berry ville  to  Martinsburg, 
entering  the  latter  place  on  the  14th,  where  he  took  seven 
hundred  prisoners,  five  pieces  of  artillery  and  a  considerable 
quantity  of  stores.  These  operations  cleared  the  valley  of  the 
enemy,  those  at  Harper's  Ferry  withdrawing  to  Maryland 
Heights.  More  than  four  thousand  prisoners,  twenty-nine 
pieces  of  artillery,  two  hundred  and  seventy  wagons  and  am 
bulances,  with  four  hundred  horses,  were  captured,  besides  a 
large  amount  of  military  stores.  Our  loss  was  small.  On  the 
night  that  Ewell  appeared  at  Winchester,  the  Federal  troops 
in  front  of  A.  P.  Hill,  at  Fredericksburg,  recrossed  the  Kap- 
pahannock,  and  the  next  day  disappeared  behind  the  hills  of 
Stafford. 

The  onward  movement  of  General  Lee  had  now. fairly  com 
menced.  The  success  of  Winchester  was  a  brilliant  introduc- 


20  THE  THIRD   YEAB   OF   THE   WAR. 

tion  to  the  campaign.  The  men  who  had  achieved  this  success, 
and  who  had  been  trained  in  marching,  fighting  and  endurance, 
under  Stonewall  Jackson,  were  appropriately  placed  in  the  van 
of  the  imposing  movement  that  now  threatened  the  territory 
of  the  agitated  and  alarmed  North. 

The  whole  army  of  General  Hooker  withdrew  from  the  line 
of  the  Rappahannock,  pursuing  the  roads  near  the  Potomac, 
and  no  favorable  opportunity  was  offered  for  attack.  It  seemed 
to  be  the  purpose  of  General  Hooker  to  take  a  position  which 
would  enable  him  to  cover  the  approaches  to  Washington 
City. 

With  this  view,  he  occupied  strong  positions  at  Centreville 
and  Manassas,  so  as  to  interpose  his  army  between  us  and 
Washington,  and  thus  prevent  a  sudden  descent  from  the  Blue 
Ridge  by  General  Lee  upon  the  Yankee  capital.  Meanwhile, 
Longstreet  and  Hill  were  following  fast  upon  Swell's  track, 
the  former  reaching  Ashby's  and  Snicker's  gaps  in  time  to  pre 
vent  any  movement  upon  Swell's  rear,  and  the  latter  (Hill) 
getting  to  Culpepper  in  good  season  to  protect  Longstreet's 
rear,  or  to  co-operate  with  him  in  the  event  of  an  attack  upon 
his  flank,  or  to  guard  against  any  demonstration  in  the  direc 
tion  of  Richmond. 

When  Longstreet  occupied  the  mountain  gaps,  the  cavalry, 
under  General  Stuart,  was  thrown  out  in  his  front  to  watch  the 
enemy,  now  reported  to  be  moving  into  Loudon.  On  the 
17th,  his  cavalry  encountered  two  brigades  of  ours,  under 
General  Stuart,  near  Aldie,  and  was  driven  back  with  loss. 
The  next  day  the  engagement  was  renewed,  the  Federal  cavalry 
being  strongly  supported  by  infantry,  and  General  Stuart,  in 
turn,  was  compelled  to  retire. 

The  enemy  advanced  as  far  as  Upperville  and  then  fell  back. 
In  these  engagements  General  Stuart  took  about  four  hundred 
prisoners  and  a  considerable  number  of  horses  and  arms. 

In  the  meantime,  a  portion  of  Ewell's  corps  had  crossed  the 
Potomac  at  Williamsport.  No  report  had  been  received  that 
the  Federal  army  had  crossed  the  Potomac,  and  the  absence 
of  the  cavalry  rendered  it  impossible  to  obtain  accurate  infor 
mation.  In  order,  however,  to  retain  it  on  the  east  side  of  the 
mountains  after  it  should  enter  Maryland,  and  thus  leave  open 
our  communication  with  the  Potomac,  through  Hagerstown 


THE    THIRD    YEAR    OF   THE    WAR.  21 

and  Williamsport,  General  Ewell  had  been  instructed  to  send 
a  division  eastwards  from  Chambersburg  to  cross  the  South 
Mountains.  Early 's  division  was  detached  for  this  purpose,  and 
proceeded  as  far  east  as  York,  while  the  remainder  of  the  corps 
proceded  to  Carlisle. 

On  the  24th,  the  whole  of  A.  P.  Hill's  corps  crossed  the  Po 
tomac  at  Shepherdstown,  that  of  Longstreet  having  previously 
reached  the  Maryland  shore  by  the  Williamsport  ford — the 
corps  of  General  Longstreet  being  composed  of  the  divisions  of 
McLaws,  Pickett  and  Hood,  whilst  that  of  Hill  consisted  of 
Pender,  Heth  and  Anderson.  The  columns  reunited  at  Hagers- 
town,  and  advanced  thence  into  Pennsylvania,  encamping  near 
Chambersburg  on  the  27th. 

The  invasion  of  Pennsylvania  had  now  progressed  to  a  crisis, 
which  was  the  signal  of  unbounded  excitement  in  the  North. 
On  the  29th,  Brigadier-general  Jenkins  and  command  went 
within  sight  and  artillery  range  of  Harrisburg,  with  a  view,  it 
was  thought,  of  attack.  The  light  horsemen  of  the  Confederates 
scoured  the  southern  region  of  Pennsylvania.  For  weeks  the 
dashing  and  adventurous  cavalry  of  Jenkins  and  Imboden  were 
persistently  busy  in  scouring  the  country  between  the  Susque- 
hannah  and  the  Alleghanies,  the  Monocacy  and  the  Potomac, 
and  from  the  lines  before  Harrisburg  their  trumpets  had 
sounded. 

At  the  first  news  of  the  invasion,  Lincoln  had  called  for  a 
hundred  thousand  men  to  defend  Washington.  Governor 
Andrews  offered  the  whole  military  strength  of  Massachusetts 
in  the  terrible  crisis.  Governor  Seymour,  of  New  York,  sum 
moned  McClellan  to  grave  consultations  respecting  the  de 
fences  of  Pennsylvania.  The  bells  were  set  to  ringing  in 
Brooklyn.  Regiment  after  regiment  was  sent  off  from  New 
York  to  Philadelphia.  The  famous  Seventh  regiment  took  the 
field,  and  proceeded  to  Harrisburg.  The  Dutch  farmers  in  the 
valley  drove  their  cattle  to  the  mountains,  and  the  archives 
were  removed  from  Harrisburg. 

Hooker  had  declined  a  battle  in  Virginia.  This  hesitation 
was  to  cost  him  his  command  ;  it  was  the  theme  of  bitter 
reproach  in  the  North.  Lee  had  been  allowed  to  obtain  the 
important  advantage  of  the  military  initiative,  and  had  gained 
time  enough  to  firmly  establish  his  communications  in  the  rear 


2-J  THE    T11IED    YEAK    OF   THE    WAR. 

of  his  base  of  operations  on  the  other  side  of  the  Potomac. 
Having  brought  up  and  consolidated  his  forces  with  consum 
mate  address  he  was  in  a  position  to  hurl  them  wherever  he 
might  desire. 

On  crossing  the  Potomac,  Hooker  had  taken  up  a  line  ex 
tending  from  Washington  to  Baltimore,  expecting  General  Lee 
to  offer  him  battle  in  Maryland.  Finding  himself  disappointed 
in  this,  and  compelled  by  his  superiors  at  Washington,  or 
smarting  under  their  distrust,  he  relinquished  his  command  to 
George  C.  Meade,  wrho,  finding  that  Lee  had  deflected  in  his 
march  through  Pennsylvania,  moved  towards  Chambersburg 
to  meet  him. 

General  Lee  had  proposed  to  attack  Harrisburg.  On  the 
30th,  as  General  Ewell  was  preparing  to  march  to  Harrisburg, 
twenty  miles  distant,  an  order  came  to  him  to  unite  his  corps 
with  the  rest  of  the  army  near  Gettysburg.  Major-general 
Early,  of  this  corps,  who,  after  crossing  the  river,  had  moved 
to  York,  and  who  was  then  at  that  place,  was  at  once  notified, 
and  the  corps  immediately  took  up  the  line  of  march. 

Important  news  had  been  received.  On  the  night  of  the 
29th,  information  was  brought  to  General  Lee's  head-quarters 
that  the  Federal  army,  having  crossed  the  Potomac,  was  ad 
vancing  northwards,  and  that  the  head  of  the  column  had 
reached  the  South  Mountain.  As  our  communications  with 
the  Potomac  were  thus  menaced,  it  was  resolved  to  prevent  his 
further  progress  in  that  direction  by  concentrating  our  army 
on  the  east  side  of  the  mountains.  Accordingly,  Longstreet 
and  Hill  were  directed  to  proceed  from  Chambersburg  to 
Gettysburg,  to  which  point  General  Ewell  had  been  also  in 
structed  to  march.  • 

A  day  pregnant  with  a  momentous  issue  was  at  hand.  The 
two  armies  which  had  ceased  to  confront  each  other  since  the 
breaking  up  of  the  Fredericksburg  lines  found  themselves 
again  face  to  face  near  Gettysburg,  on  Wednesday,  July  1st. 

Before  turning  to  the  bloody  page  of  Gettysburg,  the  curi 
osity  of  the  reader  naturally  inquires  into  the  conduct  of  the 
Confederate  army  on  the  long  march  which  had  at  last  pene 
trated  the  fruitful  fields  of  Pennsylvania.  Considering  what 
the  country  and  homes  of  the  Confederacy  had  suffered  from 
the  ferocity  of  the  enemy,  it  might  have  been  supposed  that 


THE    THIRD    YEAR    OF    THE    WAR.  23 

Lee's  army  would  have  improved  their  grand  opportunity  in 
Pennsylvania,  not  indeed  by  an  imitation  of  the  enemy's' out 
rages  in  the  South,  but  by  that  eminently  justifiable  retaliation 
which,  while  it  scorns  to  mete  out  in  kind  the  enemy's  crime, 
in  arson,  pillage  and  innocent  blood,  insists  upon  doing  him 
some  commensurate  injury  by  severe  acts  of  war,  done  with 
deliberation  and  under  the  authority  of  superiors.  Such  ex 
pectations  were  disappointed.  Every  just  and  intelligent 
reader  of  the  records  of  this  war  must  wonder  that  General 
Lee  gave  a  protection  to  the  citizens  of  Pennsylvania  whi^h 
had  never  been  accorded  to  our  own  people  ;  that,  with  an  ob- 
tuseness  that  is  inexplicable,  he  confounded  two  very  different 
classes  of  retaliation  ;  and  that,  while  forbidding  the  irregular 
pillage  of  the  country,  and  threatening  marauders  with  death 
(which  admirable  orders  were  heartily  approved  by  all  people 
in  the  South),  he  also  restrained  his  army  from  laying  waste 
the  country  in  line  of  battle,  or  destroying  the  enemy's  subsis 
tence.  Such  tenderness,  the  effect  of  a  weak  and  strained 
chivalry,  or  more  probably  that  of  deference  to  European 
opinion,  is  another  of  the  many  instances  which  the  war  has 
furnished  of  the  simplicity  and  sentimental  facility  of  the 
South. 

General  Lee  attempted  conciliation  of  a  people  who 'were 
little  capable  of  it,  but  were  always  ready  to  take  counsel  of 
their  fears.  The  effect  of  his  moderate  warfare  on  such  a  people 
was  to  irritate  them  without  intimidating  them  ;  in  fact,  to  com 
pose  their  alarms  and  to  dissuade  them  from  what  had  been 
imagined  as  the  horrors  of  invasion.  In  this  respect,  his  move 
ment  into  Pennsylvania  gave  to  the  enemy  a  certain  moral 
comfort,  and  encouraged  the  prosecution  of  the  war. 

With  reference,  now,  to  the  military  features  of  the  move 
ment,  it  must  rank  with  the  most  remarkable  marches  on  re 
cord.  Looking  back  to  the  Rappahannock,  we  now  see  what 
Lee  had  accomplished.  When  he  set  out  upon  the  northern 
expedition,  he  was  confronted  by  one  of  the  largest  and  best- 
appointed  armies  the  enemy  ever  had  in  the  field.  Winchester, 
Martinsburg,  Harper's  Ferry  and  Berry ville  were  garrisoned 
by  hostile  forces.  The  cavalry  of  the  enemy  were  in  splendid 
condition.  General  Lee  marched  over  the  Blue  Kidge  and 
across  the  Shenandoah  and  Potomac  rivers.  The  mountain 


-  THE   THIRD   YEAR    OF   THE    WAE. 

passes  and  the  fords  of  the  rivers  might  have  been  effectually 
blockaded.  The  whole  of  the  lower  valley  was  in  possession 
o£  the  enemy.  And  yet,  starting  from  Culpepper  Court-house, 
General  Lee  conducted  his  army  across  the  mountains,  along 
the  valley  and  over  the  rivers,  without  encountering  serious 
opposition.  Except  a  few  cavalry  engagements,  the  army 
marched  from  Culpepper  Court-house  to  Gettysburg,  in  Penn 
sylvania,  without  resistance. 

The  conjuncture  which  had  been  reached  wras  the  most  criti 
cal  of  the  war.  Meade's  army  was  the  only  real  obstacle  which 
could  impede  the  triumphant  march  of  the  army  of  Lee  into 
the  very  heart  of  the  Yankee  States,  and  in  whatever  direction 
he  might  choose  to  push  his  campaign.  The  press  attempted 
some  ridiculous  comfort  by  writing  vaguely  of  thousands  of 
militia  springing  to  arms.  But  the  history  of  modern  warfare 
afforded  better  instruction,  for  it  taught  clearly  enough  that  an 
invading  army  of  regular  and  victorious  troops  could  only  be 
effectively  checked  by  the  resistance  of  a  similar  army  in  the 
field,  or  of  fortified  places  strong  enough  to  compel  a  regular 
siege.  In  Richmond,  the  garish  story  of  the  newspapers  pre 
pared  the  public  mind  for  a  great  victory.  There  was  the  re 
newed  and  feverish  anticipation  of  an  early  peace.  The  elated 
public  of  the  Confederate  capital  little  imagined  that,  in  a  few 
days,  events  were  to  occur  to  turn  back  the  war  for  years. 


THE   BATTLE    OF   GETTYSBURG. 

The  march  towards  Gettysburg  was  conducted  slowly.  At 
10  o'clock  A.M.,  on  the  1st  instant,  Heth's  division,  of  Hill's 
corp,  being  ahead,  encountered  the  enemy's  advance  line,  the 
Eleventh  corps,  about  three  miles  west  of  Gettysburg.  Here  a 
sharp  engagement  ensued,  our  men  steadily  advancing  and 
driving  the  enemy  before  them  to  the  town,  and  to  a  range  of 
hills  or  low  mountains  running  out  a  little  east  of  south  from 
the  town. 

General  .Reynolds,  who  commanded  the  enemyjs  advance, 
rode  forward  to  inspect  the  ground  and  select  a  position  for  his 
line  of  battle.  The  Confederates,  distinguishing  him  from  his 
uniform  to  be  an  officer  of  high  rank,  opened  upon  him  wjth 


THE   THIRD   YEAR    OF   THE    WAR.  25 

heavy  volleys  of  infantry  fire.  He  was  struck  by  several  balls, 
and  died  instantly  without  uttering  a  word. 

About  an  hour  after  the  opening  of  the  engagement,  which 
was  principally  of  artillery,  General  Ewell,  who  was  moving 
from  the  direction  of  Carlisle,  came  up  and  took  a  position  on 
our  extreme  left.  Rodes  came  into  the  engagement  on  the 
flank  of  the  enemy,  who  were  confronting  A.  P.  Hill,  and  oc 
cupied  the  most  commanding  point  of  the  very  ridge  with 
artillery  which  the  enemy  were  upon.  This  ridge  runs  in  the 
shape  of  a  crescent  around  Gettysburg,  following  the  windings 
of  a  creek  which  is  between  it  and  the  town. 

After  our  artillery  had  been  engaged  for  some  half  an  hour, 
with  admirable  effect,  the  enemy  were  observed  to  be  moving 
rapidly  from  Hill's  front  to  that  of  Rodes,  and  to  be  advanc 
ing  their  new  columns  against  Rodes  from  the  town.  Rodes, 
his  dispositions  having  been  made,  advanced  his  whole  line. 
It  had  first  to  cross  a  field,  six  hundred  yards  wide,  and  enter 
woods — immediately  upon  entering  which  it  became  hotly 
engaged. 

The  Alabama  brigade  (Rodes'  old  command)  advanced  some 
what  confusedly,  owing,  it  is  said,  to  a  misconception  as  to  the 
direction  which  it  should  take,  and,  whilst  confused,  became 
engaged,  and  was  forced  back  with  its  lines  broken,  though  re 
inforced  by  the  Fifth  Alabama,  which  uncovered  Lawson's 
brigade.  This  brigade  was  thought  to  have  behaved  badly ; 
it  was  reported  to  General  Rodes,  in  the  midst  of  the  fight,  that 
one  of  the  regiments  had  raised  the  white  flag,  and  gone  over 
in  a  body  to  the  enemy.  The  only  foundation  for  this  report 
was,  that  two  of  the  regiments  were  almost  entirely  surrounded, 
in  consequence  of  the  giving  way  of  the  Alabama  brigade  and 
the  concentration  of  the  enemy  at  that  point,  and  were  either 
killed  or  captured  almost  to  a  man.  The  gallant  resistance, 
however,  which  they  made  is  shown  by  a  statement  coming 
from  General  Rodes  himself :  that,  riding  along  behind  where 
their  line  had  been,  he  thought  he  observed  a  regiment  lying 
down,  as  if  to  escape  the  Yankee  fire.  On  going  up,  however, 
to  force  them  into  the  fight,  he  found  they  were  all  corpses. 

As  the  battle  wavered  General  Early  came  up,  and  got  his 
artillery  into  position  so  as  to  enfilade  and  silence  batteries 
which  were  then  occupied  in  an  attempt  to  enfilade  Rodes' 


26  THE   THIRD    YEAR    OF  , THE   WAR. 

battery.  As  the  enemy  attempted  a  flank  movement,  Gordon's 
brigade  of  gallant  Georgians  was  ordered  to  make  a  charge. 
They  crossed  a  small  stream  and  valley,  and  entered  a  long 
narrow  strip  of  an  opposite  slope,  at  the  top  of  which  the  enemy 
had  a  strong  force  posted.  For  five  minutes  nothing  could  be 
heard  or  seen  save  the  smoke  and  roar  proceeding  from  the 
heavy  musketry,  and  indicating  a  desperate  contest ;  but  the 
contest  was  not  long  or  uncertain.  The  Yankees  were  put  to 
flight,  and  our  men  pressed  them,  pouring  a  deadly  fire  at  the 
flying  fugitives.  Seeing  a  second  and  larger  line  near  the 
town,  General  Early  halted  General  Gordon  until  two  other 
brigades  (Hayes'  and  Hoke's)  could  come  up,  when  a  second 
charge  was  made,  and  three  pieces  of  artillery,  besides  several 
entire  regiments  of  the  enemy,  were  captured. 

There  should  not  be  lost  from  the  records  of  the  individual 
heroism  of  the  Confederacy-  an  incident  of  this  battle.  During 
a  lull  in  the  engagement,  when  the  enemy  were  reforming  and 
awaiting  reinforcements,  Lieutenant  Roberts,  of  the  Second  Mis 
sissippi,  observing,  some  distance  off,  but  nearer  the  enemy's  than 
our  own  fires,  two  groups,  each  consisting  of  from  seven  to  ten 
men,  and  each  guarding  a  stand  of  colors,  called  for  volunteers 
to  take  them.  Four  gallant  spirits  from  his  own,  and  an  equal 
number  from  the  Forty-second  Mississippi  regiment,  readily  re 
sponded,  and  soon  a  dash  is  made  for  the  colors.  A  hand-to-hand 
fight  ensued,  in  which  all  on  both  sides  were  either  killed  or 
wounded,  except  Private  McPherson,  who  killed  the  last 
Yankee  color-bearer  and  brought  off  the  colors,  Lieutenant 
Boberts  being  killed  just  as  he  was  seizing  one  of  the  colors. 

The  result  of  the  day's  fight  may  be  summed  up  thus :  We 
had  attacked  a  considerable  force ;  had  driven  it  over  three 
miles ;  captured  five  thousand  prisoners,  and  killed  and 
wounded  many  thousands.  Our  own  loss  wras  not  heavy, 
though  a  few  brigades  suffered  severely. 

Unfortunately,  however,  the  enemy,  driven  through  Gettys 
burg,  got  possession  of  the  high  range  of  hills  south  and  east 
of  the  town.  Here  was  the  fatal  mistake  of  the  Confederates. 
In  the  engagement  of  the  1st  instant,  the  enemy  had  but  a 
small  portion  of  his  force  up,  and  if  the  attack  had  been  pressed 
in  the  afternoon  of  that  day  there  is  little  doubt  that  our  forces 
could  have  got  the  heights  and*captured  this  entire  detach- 


28  THE   THIRD    YEAR   OF   THE    WAR. 

of  Anderson's  division  was  Longstreet's  left,  McLaw's  division 
being  next  to  Anderson's,  and  Hood  on  the  extreme  right  of 
our  line,  which  was  opposite  the  eminence  upon  which  the 
enemy's  left  rested. 

THE   SECOND   DAT. 

The  preparations  for  attack  were  not  completed  until  the 
afternoon  of  the  2d.  Late  in  the  afternoon  an  artillery  attack 
was  made  by  our  forces  on  the  left  and  centre  of  the  enemy, 
which  was  rapidly  followed  by  the  advance  of  our  infantry, 
Longstreet's  corps  on  our  side  being  principally  engaged.  A 
fearful  but  indecisive  contest  ensued,  and  for  four  hours  the 
sound  of  musketry  was  incessant.  The  main  object  of  the 
attack  of  the  Confederates  was  the  famous  Cemetery  Hill,  the 
key  of  the  enemy's  position.  The  enemy's  artillery  replied 
vigorously.  The  roar  and  thunder  and  flame  and  smoke  of 
artillery,  and  the  screech  of  shells,  so  completely  filled  the 
heavens  that  all  else  seemed  forgotten. 

General  Ewell  had  been  ordered  to  attack  directly  the  high 
ground  on  the  enemy's  right,  which  had  already  been  partially 
fortified.  It  was  half  an  hour  of  sunset  when  Johnson's  infan 
try  were  ordered  forward  to  the  attack.  In  passing  down  the 
hill  on  which  they  had  been  posted,  and  whilst  crossing  the 
creek,  they  were  m.uch  annoyed  by  the  fire  to  which  the}^  were 
subjected  from  the  enemy's  artillery,  which,  from  Cemetery 
Hill  poured  nearly  an  enfilade  fire  upon  them.  The  creek  was 
wide,  and  its  banks  steep,  so  that  our  men  had  to  break  ranks 
in  order  to  cross  it.  Having  passed  the  creek,  General  Jones' 
brigade  was  thrown  into  disorder  and  retired  a  short  distance. 

On  the  extreme  left,  General  G.  II.  Stewart's  brigade  was  more 
successful.  Pushing  around  to  the  enemy's  left,  he  enfiladed 
and  drove  the  enemy -from  a  breastwork  they  had  built  in 
order  to  defend  their  right  flank,  and  which  ran  at  right  angles 
to  the  rest  of  their  lines  up  the  mountain  side.  The  enemy, 
however,  quickly  moved  forward  a  force  to  retake  it,  but  were 
repulsed,  our  troops  occupying  their  own  breastworks  in  order 
to  receive  their  attack.  General  Stewart  made  no  further 
effort  to  advance.  Night  had  nearly  fallen,  and  the  ground 
was  new  to  him. 


EN.  R 


E  N  ELL 


THE    THIRD    YEAR    OF   THE    WAR.  29 

General  Early,  upon  hearing  General  Johnson's  infantry  en 
gaged,  sent  forward  Hayes'  Louisiana  and  Hoke's  North  Caro 
lina  brigades.  The  troops,  advancing  as  a  storming  party, 
quickly  passed  over  a  ridge  and  down  a  hill.  In  a  valley  be 
low  they  met  two  lines  of  the  Federals  posted  behind  stone 
walls.  These  they  charged.  At  the  charge  the  Federals  broke 
and  fled  up  the  hill  closely  pursued  by  our  men.  It  was  now 
dark  ;  but  Hayes  and  A  very,  still  pursuing,  pushed  the  enemy 
up  the  hill  and  stormed  the  Cemetery  heights. 

The  contest  here  was  intensely  .exciting  and  terrible.  The 
gloom  of  the  falling  night  was  lighted  up  by  the  flashes  of  the 
enemy's  guns.  Thirty  or  forty  pieces,  perhaps  more,  were 
firing  grape  and  canister  with  inconceivable  rapidity  at  Early's 
column.  It  must  have  been  that  they  imagined  it  to  have  been 
a  general  and  simultaneous  advance,  for  they  opened  on  our 
men  in  three  or  four  directions  besides  that  which  they  were 
attacking. 

Hayes'  and  Hoke's  brigades  pressed  on  and  captured  two  or 
three  lines  of  breastworks  and  three  or  four  of  their  batteries 
of  artillery.  For  a  few  moments  every  gun  of  the  enemy  on 
the  heights  was  silenced  j  but,  by  the  time  General  Hayes  could 
get  his  command  together,  a  dark  line  appeared  in  front  of 
them  and  on  either  flank  a  few  yards  off.  The  true  situation 
soon  became  clear.  The  Yankees  were  bringing  up  at  least  a 
division  to  retake  the  works.  General  Hayes,  being  unsup-* 
ported  by  the  troops  on  his  right  (which  were  from  Hill's 
corps),  was  compelled  to  fall  back. 

Major-general  R6des  commenced  to  advance  simultaneously 
with  General  Early.  He  had,  however,  more  than  double  the 
distance  of  Early  to  go,  and  being  unsupported  by  the  troops 
on  his  right,  who  made  no  advance,  he  consequently  moved 
slower  than  he  would  have  done  had  he  been  supported. 
Before  reaching  the  enemy's  works  Early  had  been  repulsed, 
and  so  General  Rodes  halted,  thinking  it  useless  to  attack  since 
he  was  unsupported. 

When  the  second  day  closed  this  was  the  position  of  Swell's 
corps.  Johnson's  left  had  gained  important  ground,  part  of  it 
being  a  very  short  distance  from  the  top  of  the  mountain, 
which,  if  once  gained,  would  command  the  whole  of  the 
enemy's  position ;  but  his  right  had  made  no  progress.  Early's 


SO  THE   THIRD   YEAR   OF   THE   WAR. 

attack,  almost  a  brilliant  success,  had  produced  no  results,  and 
he  occupied  nearly  his  former  position.  Rodes,  having  ad 
vanced  nearly  half-way  to  the  enemy's  works,  and  finding 
there  good  cov«r  for  his  troops,  remained  in  his  advanced  po 
sition. 

But  we  must  take  the  reader's  attention  to  another  part  of 
the  field,  where  a  more  dramatic  circumstance  than  Early's 
momentary  grasp  of  victory  had  occurred. 

General  Hill  had  been  instructed  to  threaten  the  centre  of 
the  Yankee  line,  in  order  to. prevent  reinforcements  being  sent 
to  either  wing,  and  to  avail  himself  of  any  opportunity  that 
might  present  itself  to  attack. 

On  the  right  of  Hill's  corps  and  th«  left  of  Longstreet,  be 
ing  joined  on  to  Barksdale's  brigade  of  McLaw's  division,  was 
Wilcox's  brigade,  then  Perry's,  Wright's,  Posey's,  Mahone's. 
At  half-past  five  o'clock  Longstreet  commenced  the  attack,  and 
Wilcox  followed  it  up  by  promptly  moving  forward ;  Perry's 
brigade  quickly  followed,  and  Wright  moved  simultaneously 
with  him.  The  two  divisions  of  Longstreet's  corps  soon  en 
countered  the  enemy,  posted  a  little  in  rear  of  the  Emmets- 
burg  turnpike,  which  winds  along  the  slope  of  the  range  upon 
which  the  enemy's  main  force  was  concentrated.  After  a  short 
but  spirited  engagement,  the  enemy  was  driven  back  upon  the 
main  line  upon  the  crest  of  the  hill.  McLaw's  and  Hood's 
divisions  made  a  desperate  assault  upon  their  main  line ;  but, 
owing  to  the  precipitate  and  very  rugged  character  of  the 
slope,  were  unable  to  reach  the  summit. 

After  Barksdale's  brigade,  of  McLaw's  division,  had  been  en 
gaged  for  some  time,  Wilcox,  Wright,  and  Perry,  were  ordered 
forward,  encountering  a  line  of  the  enemy,  and  soon  putting 
them  to  rout.  Still  pressing  forward,  these  three  brigades  met 
with  another  and  stronger  line  of  the  enemy,  backed  by  twelve 
pieces  of  artillery.  No  pause  was  made.  The  line  moved 
rapidly  forward  and  captured  the  artillery. 

Another  fresh  line  of  battle  was  thrown  forward  by  the 
enemy.  Wright  had  swept  over  the  valley  under  a  terrific 
fire  from  the  batteries  posted  upon  the  heights,  had  encoun 
tered  the  enemy's  advance  line,  and  had  driven  him  across  the 
Emmetsburg  pike,  to  a  position  behind  a  stone  wall,  or  fence, 
which  runs  parallel  with  the  pike,  and  about  sixty  or  eighty 


THE   THIRD   YEAR   OF   THE   WAR.  31 

yards  in  front  of  the  batteries  on  the  heights,  and  immediately 
Tinder  them.  Here  the  enemy  made  a  desperate  attempt  to 
retrieve  his  fortunes.  The  engagement  lasted  for  fifteen  or 
twenty  minutes.  Charging  up  the  steep  sides  of  the  moun 
tains,  the  Confederates  succeeded  in  driving  the  enemy  from 
behind  the  wall  at  the  point  of  the  bayonet.  Hushing  forward 
with  a  shout,  they  gained  the  summit  of  the  heights,  driving 
the  enemy's  infantry  in  disorder  and  confusion  into  the  woods 
beyond. 

The  key  of  the  enemy's  position  was  for  a  moment  in  our 
hands.  But  the  condition  of  the  brave  troops  who  had  wrested 
it  by  desperate  valor,  had  become  critical  in  the  extreme. 
Wilcox,  Perry,  and  "Wright,  had  charged  most  gallantly  over  a 
distance  of  more  than  three-quarters  of  a  mile,  breaking  two  or 
three  of  tlie  enemy's  lines  of  battle,  and  capturing  two  or  three 
batteries  of  artillery.  Of  course,  our  lines  were  greatly  thinned, 
and  our  troops  much  exhausted*  No  reinforcements  were  sent 
this  column  by  the  Lieutenant-general  commanding.  The  ex 
tent  of  their  success  was  not  instantly  appreciated.  A  de 
cisive  moment  was  lost. 

"Wright's  little  brigade  of  Georgians  had  actually  got  in  the 
enemy's  entrenchments  upon  the  heights.  Perceiving,  after 
getting  possession  of  the  enemy's  works,  that  they  were  iso 
lated — more  than  a  mile  from  support — that  no  advance  had 
been  made  on  their  left,  and  just  then  seeing  the  enemy's 
flanking  column  on  their  right  and  left  Hanks  rapidly  converg 
ing  in  their  rear,  these  noble  Georgians  faced  about,  abandon 
ing  all  the  guns  they  had  captured,  and  cut  their  way  back 
to  our  main  lines,  through  the  enemy,  who  had  now  almost  en 
tirely  surrounded  them. 

The  results  of  the  day  were  unfortunate  enough.  Our  troops 
had  been  repulsed  at  all  points  save  where  Brigadier- general 
Stewart  held  his  ground.  A  second  day  of  desperate  fighting 
and  correspondingly  frightful  carnage  was  ended.  But  Gen 
eral  Lee  still  believed  himself  and  his  brave  army  capable  of 
taking  these  commanding  heights,  and  thus  to  be  able  to  dic 
tate  a  peace  on  the  soil  of  the  free  States. 


82  THE  THIRD  YEAR  OF  THE  WAK. 


THE  THIRD  DAY. 


The  third  day's  battle  was  again  to  be  commenced  by  the 
Confederates.  At  midnight  a  council  of  war  had  been  held  by 
the  enemy,  at  which  it  was  determined  that  the  Confederates 
would  probably  renew  the  attack  at  daylight  on  the  following 
morning,  and  that  for  that  day  the  Yankees  had  better  act 
purely  on  the  defensive. 

The  enemy's  position  on  the  mountain  was  well-nigh  impreg 
nable,  for  there  was  no  conceivable  advance  or  approach  that 
could  not  be  raked  and  crossed  with  the  artillery.  All  the 
heights  and  every  advantageous  position  along  the  entire  line 
where  artillery  could  be  massed  or  a  battery  planted,  frowned 
down  on  the  Confederates  through  brows  of  brass-  and  iron. 
On  the  slopes  of  the  mountain  was  to  occur  one  of  the  most 
terrific  combats  of  modern  times,  in  which  more  than  two  hun 
dred  cannon  were  belching  forth  their  thunders  at  one  time, 
and  nearly  two  hundred  thousand  muskets  were  being  dis 
charged  as  rapidly  as  men  hurried  with  excitement  and  passion 
could  load  them. 

Early  in  the  morning  preparations  were  made  for  a  general 
attack  along  the  enemy's  whole  line,  while  a  large  force  was  to 
be  concentrated  against  his  centre,  with  the  view  of  retaking 
the  heights  captured  and  abandoned  the  day  before.  Long- 
street  massed  a  large  number  of  long-range  guns  (fifty-five  in 
number)  upon  the  crest  of  a  slight  eminence  just  in  front  of 
Perry's  and  Wilcox's  brigades,  and  a  little  to  the  left  of  the 
heights,  upon  which  they  were  to  open.  Hill  massed  some 
sixty  guns  along  the  hill  in  front  of  Posey's  and  Mahone's 
brigades,  and  almost  immediately  in  front  of  the  heights.  At 
twelve  o'clock,  while  the  signal-flags  were  waving  swift  intel 
ligence  along  our  lines,  the  shrill  sound  of  a  Whitworth  gua 
broke  the  silence,  and  the  cannonading  commenced. 

The  enemy  replied  with  terrific  spirit,  from  their  batteries 
posted  along  the  heights.  Never  had  been  heard  such  tremend 
ous  artillery  firing  in  the  war.  The  warm  and  sultry  air  was 
hideous  with  discord.  Dense  columns  of  smoke  hung  over  the 
beautiful  valley.  The  lurid  flame  leaps  madly  from  the  can 
non's  mouth,  each  moment  the  roar  grows  more  intense  ;  now 


THE   THIRD    YEAR   OF   THE    WAR.  33 

cliime  in  volleys  of  small  arms.  For  one  hour  and  a  half  this 
most  terrific  fire  was  continued,  during  which  time  the  shriek 
ing  of  shells,  the  crashing  of  falling  timber,  the  fragments  of 
rock  flying  through  the  air,  shattered  from  the  cliffs  by  solid 
shot,  the  heavy  mutterings  from  the  valley  between  the  oppos 
ing  armies,  the  splash  of  bursting  shrapnel,  and  the  fierce 
neighing  of  wounded  artillery-horses  made  a  picture  terribly 
grand  and  sublime. 

But  there  was  now  to  occur  a  scene  of  moral  sublimity  and 
heroism  unequalled  in  the  war.  The  storming  party  was 
moved  up — Pickett's  division  in  advance,  supported  on  the 
right  by  Wilcox's  brigade,  and  on  the  left  by  Heth's  division, 
commanded  by  Pettigrew.  With  steady  measured  tread  the 
division  of  Pickett  advanced  upon  the  foe.  Never  did  troops 
enter  a  fight  in  such  splendid  order.  Their  banners  floated 
defiantly  in  the  breeze  as  they  pressed  across  the  plain.  The 
flags  which  had  waved  amid  the  wild  tempest  of  battle  at 
Games'  Mill,  Frazer's  Farm,  and  Manassas,  never  rose  more 
proudly.  Kemper,  with  his  gallant  men,  leads  the  right ; 
Garnett  brings  up  the  left ;  and  the  veteran  Armistead,  with 
his  brave  troops,  moves  forward  in  support.  The  distance  is 
more  than  half  a  mile.  As  they  advance  the  enemy  fire  with 
great  rapidity — shell  and  solid  shot  give  place  to  grape  and 
canister — the  very  earth  quivers  beneath  the  heavy  roar — wide 
gaps  are  made  in  this  regiment  and  that  brigade.  The  line 
moves  onward,  cannons  roaring,  grape  and  canister  plunging 
and  ploughing  through  the  ranks,  bullets  whizzing  as  thick  as 
hail-stones  in  winter,  and  men  falling  as  leaves  fall  in  the  blasts 
of  autumn. 

As  Pickett  got  well  under  the  enemy's  fire,  our  batteries 
ceased  firing,  for  want,  it  is  said,  of  ammunition.  It  was  a 
fearful  moment — one  in  which  was  to  be  tested  the  pride  and 
mettle  of  glorious  Virginia.  Into  the  sheets  of  artillery  fire 
advanced  the  unbroken  lines  of  Picketts'  brave  Yirginians. 
They  have  reached  the  Emmettsburg  road,  and  here  they  meet  a 
severe  fire  from  heavy  masses  of  the  enemy's  infantry,,  posted 
behind  the  stone  fence,  while  their  artillery,  now  free  from  the 
annoyance  of  our  artillery,  turn  their  whole  fire  upon  this 
devoted  band.  Still  they  remain  firm.  Now  again  they  ad 
vance.  They  reach  the  works — the  contest  rages  with  intense 

3 


34r  THE    THIRD    YEAR    OF    THE    WAT?. 

fury — men  fight  almost  hand  to  hand — the  red  cross  and  the 
"  stars  and  stripes"  wave  defiantly  in  close  proximity.  A  Fed 
eral  officer  dashes  forward  in  front  of  his  shrinking  columns, 

£5  / 

and  with  flashing  sword,  urges  them  to  stand.  General  Pick- 
ett,  seeing  the  splendid  valor  of  his  troops,  moves  among  them 
as  if  courting  death.  The  noble  Garnett  is  dead,  Arrnistead 
wounded,  and  the  brave  Kemper,  with  hat  in  hand,  still  cheer 
ing  on  his  men  falls  from  his  horse.  But  Kemper  and  Armis- 
tead  have  already  planted  their  banners  in  the  enemy's  works. 
The  glad  shout  of  victory  is  already  heard.* 

But  where  is  Pettigrew's  division — where  are  the  supports  ? 
The  raw  troops  had  faltered  and  the  gallant  Pettigrew  himself 
had  been  wounded  in  vain  attempts  to  rally  them.  Alas,  the 
victory  was  to  be  relinquished  again.  Pickett  is  left  alone  to 
contend  with  the  masses  of  the  enemy  now  pouring  in  upon 
him  on  every  side.  Now  the  enemy  move  around  strong 
flanking  bodies  of  infantry,  and  are  rapidly  gaining  Pickett's 
rear.  The  order  is  given  to  fall  back,  and  our  men  commence 
the  movement,  doggedly  contesting  for  every  inch  of  ground. 
The  enemy  press  heavily  our  retreating  line,  and  many  noble 
spirits  who  had  passed  safely  through  the  fiery  ordeal  of  the 
advance  and  charge,  now  fall  on  the  ri^ht  and  on  the  left. 

O     "  o 

This  division  of  Virginia  troops,  small  at  first,  with  ranks 
now  torn  and  shattered,  most  of  the  officers  killed  or  wounded, 
no  valor  able  to  rescue  victory  from  such  a  grasp,  annihilation 
or  capture  inevitable,  slowly,  reluctantly,  fell  back.  It  was 

*  A  correspondent  of  a  Yankee  paper  thus  alludes  to  the  traces  of  the  strug 
gle  at  the  Cemetry : 

"  Monuments  and  headstones  lie  here  and  there  overturned.  Graves,  once  carefully 
tended  by  some  loving  hand,  have  been  trampled  by  horses'  feet  until  the  vestiges  of 
verdure  have  disappeared.  The  neat  and  well-trained  shrubbery  has  vanished,  or  is 
but  a  broken  and  withered  mass  of  tangled  brushwood.  On  one  grave  lies  a  dead 
artillery  horse  fust  decomposing  under  a  July  sun.  On  another  lie  the  torn  garments 
of  some  wounded  soldier,  stained  and  saturated  with  his  blood.  Across  a  small  head 
stone,  bearing  the  words  "To  the  memory  of  our  beloved  child,  Mary,"  lie  the  frag 
ments  ofli  musket,  shattered  by  a  cannon  shot.  In  the  centre  of  the  space  enclosed 
by  an  iron  fence  and  containing  a  half-dozen  graves,  a  few  rails  are  still  Standing 
where  they  were  erected  by  our  soldiers  and  served  to  support  the  shelter  tents  of  a 
bivouacking  squad.  A  family  shaft  has  been  broken  to  fragments  by  a  shell,  and 
only  the  base  remains,  with  a  portion  of  the  inscription  thereon.  Stone  after  stone 
felt  the  effect  of  the  feu  d?enfer  that  was  poured  upon  the  crest  of  the  hill.  Cannon 
thundered,  and  foot  and  horse  soldiers  trampled  over  the  sleeping-places  of  the  dead. 
Other  dead  were  added  to  those  who  are  resting  there,  and  many  a  wounded  soldier 
utill  lives  to  remember  the  contest  above  those  silent  graves." 


THE    THIRD    YEAR   OF   THE    WAR.  35 

not  given  to  these  few  remaining  brave  men  to  accomplish 
human  impossibilities.  The  enemy  dared  not  follow  them  be 
yond  their  works.  But  the  day  was  already  lost. 

The  field  was  covered  with  Confederates  slowly  and  sulkily 
retiring  in  small  broken  parties  under  a  heavy  fire  of  artillery. 
There  was  no  panic.  Never  did  a  commanding  general  be 
have  better  in  such  trying  circumstances  than  did  Lee.  He 
was  truly  great  in  disaster.  An  English  colonel  who  witnessed 
the  fight,  says:  "I  joined  General  Lee,  who  had,  in  the  mean 
while,  come  to  the  front  on  becoming  aware  of  the  disaster. 
General  Lee  was  perfectly  sublime.  He  was  engaged  in  rally 
ing  and  encouraging  the  broken  troops,  and  was  riding  about 
a  little  in  front  of  the  wood  quite  alone — the  whole  of  his  staff 
being  engaged  in  a  similar  manner  further  to  the  rear.  His 
face,  which  is  always  placid  and  cheerful,  did  not  show  signs 
of  the  slightest  disappointment,  care,  or  annoyance,  and  he  was 
addressing  to  every  soldier  he  met  a  few  words  of  encourage 
ment,  such  as, '  All  this  will  come  right  in  the  end  ;  we'll  talk 
it  over  afterwards;  but,  in  the  meantime,  all  good  men  must 
rally.  We  want  all  good  and  true  men  just  now,'  &c.  He 
spoke  to  all  the  wounded  men  tfcat  passed  him,  and  the  slightly 
wounded  he  exhorted  i  to  bind  up  their  hurts  and  take  up  a 
musket'  in  this  emergency.  Very  few  failed  to  answer  his  ap 
peal,  and  I  »iw  many  badly  wounded  men  take  off  their  hats 
and  cheer  him." 

"  It  is  difficult,"  says  the  same  intelligent  spectator,  "  to  ex 
aggerate  the  critical  state  of  affairs  as  they  appeared  about  this 
time.  If  the  enemy  or  their  general  had  shown  any  enterprise 
there  is  no  saying  wThat  might  have  happened.  General  Lee 
and  his  officers  were  evidently  fully  impressed  with  a  sense  of 
the  situation  ;  yet  there  was  much  less  noise,  fuss,  or  confusion 
of  orders,  than  at  any  ordinary  field  day  ;  the  men,  as  they 
were  rallied  in  the  wood,  were  brought  up  in  detachments  and 
lay  down  quiet  and  coolly  in  the  positions  assigned  to  them." 

At  night  the  Confederate  army  held  the  same  position  from 
which  it  had  driven  the  enemy  two  days  previous.  The  starry 
sky  hung  over  a  field  of  hideous  carnage.  In  the  series  of  en 
gagements  a  few  pieces  of  artillery  were  captured  by  the  Con 
federates  and  nearly  seven  thousand  prisoners  taken,  two  thou 
sand  of  whom  were  paroled  on  the  field.  Our  loss  in  killed. 


36  THE    THIRD    YEAR    OF    THE    WAR. 

wounded,  and  prisoners,  was  quite  ten  thousand.  The  enemy's 
loss  probably  exceeded  our  own,  as  the  Yankees  were  closely 
crowded  on  the  hills,  and  devoured  by  our  artillery  fire.  The 
information  of  the  enemy's  loss  is  perhaps  most  accurately  ob 
tained  from  the  bulletin  furnished  by  his  Surgeon-general, 
which  stated  that  he  had  something  over  twelve  thousand 
Yankee  wounded  under  his  control.  Counting  one  killed  for 
four  wounded,  and  making  some  allowance  for  a  large  class  of 
wounded  men  who  had  not  come  under  tho  control  of  the  offi 
cers  referred  to,  we  are  justified  in  stating  the  enemy's  loss  in 
casualties  at  Gettysburg  as  somewhere  between  fifteen  and 
eighteen  thousand.  Our  loss,  slighter  by  many  thousands  in 
comparison,  was  yet  frightful  enough.  On  our  side  Pickett's 
division  had  been  engaged  in  the  hottest  work  of  the  day,  and 
the  havoc  in  its  ranks  was  appaling.  Its  losses  on  this  day  are 
famous,  and  should  be  commemorated  in  detail.  Every  brig 
adier  in  the  division  was  killed  or  wounded.  Out  of  twenty- 
four  regimental  officers,  only  two  escaped  unhurt.  The  Kintli 
Virginia  went  in  two  hundred  and  fifty  strong  and  came  out 
with  only  thirty-eight  men. 

Conspicuous  in  our  list  of  casualties  was  the  death  of  Major- 
general  Fender.  He  had  borne  a  distinguished  part  in  every 
engagement  of  this  army,  and  was  wounded  on  several  occa 
sions  while  leading  his  command  with  admirable  gallantry  and 
ability.  Brigadier-generals  Barksdale  and  Garnett  were  killed, 
and  Brigadier-general  Semmes  mortally  wounded,  while  lead 
ing  their  troops  with  the  courage  that  had  always  distin 
guished  them.  The  brave  and  generous  spirit  of  Barksdale 
had  expired,  where  lie  preferred  to  die,  on  the  ensanguined 
field  of  battle.  Of  this  "haughty  rebel,"  who  had  fallen 
within  their  lines,  the  Yankees  told  with  devilish  satisfaction 
the  story  that  his  end  was  that  of  extreme  agony,  and  his  last 
words  were  to  crave,  as  a  dying  boon,  a  cup  of  water,  and  a 
stretcher  from  an  ambulance  boy.  The  letter  of  a  Yrankee 
officer  testifies  that  the  brave  and  suffering  hero  declared  with 
his  last  breath  that  he  was  proud  of  the  cause  he  died  fighting 
for ;  proud  of  the  manner  in  which  he  received  his  death  ;  and 
confident  that  his  countrymen  were  invincible. 

The  fearful  trial  of  a  retreat  from  a  position  far  in  the 
enemy's  country  was  now  reserved  for  General  Lee.  Happily 


THE    THIRD    YEAK    OF   THE    WAR.  37 

he  liad  an  army  with  zeal  unabated,  courage  intrepid,  devotion 
unchilled ;  with  unbounded  confidence  in  the  wisdom  of  that 
great  chieftian  who  had  so  often  led  them  to  victory.  The 
strength  of  the  enemy's  position  ;  the  reduction  of  our  ammu 
nition  ;  the  difficulty  of  procuring  supplies,  these  left  no  choice 
but  retreat. 

On  the  night  of  the  4th,  General  Lee's  army  began  to  retire 
by  the  road  to  Fairfield,  without  any  serious  interruption  on 
the  part  of  the  enemy.  In  passing  through  the  mountains,  in 
advance  of  the  column,  the  great  length  of  the  trains  exposed 
them  to  attack  by  the  enemy's  cavalry,  which  captured  a  num 
ber  of  wagons  and  ambulances  ;  but  they  succeeded  in  reach 
ing  Williamsport  without  serious  loss. 

They  were  attacked  at  that  place  on  the  6th,  by  the  enemy's 
cavalry,  which  was  gallantly  repulsed  by  General  Imboden. 
The  attacking  force  was  subsequently  encountered  and  driven 
off  by  General  Stuart,  and  pursued  for  several  miles  in  the 
direction  of  Boonsboro'.  The  army,  after  an  arduous  march, 
rendered  more  difficult  by  the  rains,  reached  Hagerstown  on 
the  afternoon  of  the  6th  and  morning  of  the  7th  July,* 


*  The  following  official  communication  from  General  Lee  illustrates  the 
unreliability  of  despatches  emanating  from  Yankee  generals  : 

HEADQUARTERS  ARMY  NORTHERN  VIRGINIA,  ) 
21st  July,  1863.  j 

GENERAL  S.  COOPER,  Adjutant  and  Inspector- General  G.  S.  A.,  Richmond,  Va.  : 

General — I  have  seen  iu  Northern  papers  what  purported  to  be  an  official  despatch 
from  General  Meade,  stating  that  he  had  captured  a  brigade  of  infantry,  two  pieces  of 
artillery,  two  caissons,  and  a  large  number  of  small  arms,  as  this  army  retired  to  the 
south  bank  of  the  Potomac,  on  the  13th  and  14th  inst. 

This  despatch  has  been  copied  into  the  Richmond  papers,  and  as  its  official  charac 
ter  may  cause  it  to  be  believed,  I  desire  to  state  that  it  is  incorrect.  The  enemy  did 
not  capture  any  organized  body  of  men  on  that  occasion,  but  only  stragglers  and  such 
as  were  left  asleep  on  the  road,  exhausted  by  the  fatigue  and  exposure  of  one  of  the 
most  inclement  nights  I  have  ever  known  at  this  season  of  the  year.  It  rained  with 
out  cessation,  rendering  the  road  by  which  our  troops  inarched  to  the  bridge  at 
Fulling  Waters  very  difficult  to  pass,  and  causing  so  much  delay  that  the  last  of  the 
troops  did  not  cross  the  river  at  the  bridge  until  1  p.  M.  on  the  14th.  While  the  col 
umn  was  thus  detained  on  the  road,  a  number  of  men,  worn  down  with  fatigue,  lay 
down  in  barns  and  by  the  roadside,  and  though  officers  were  sent  back  to  arouse 
them,  as  the  troops  moved  on,  the  darkness  and  rain  prevented  them  from  finding 
nil,  and  many  were  in  this  way  left  behind.  Two  guns  were  left  in  the  road.  The 
horses  that  drew  them  became  exhausted,  and  the  officers  went  forward  to  procure 
others.  When  they  returned,  the  rear  of  the  column  had  passed  the  guns  so  far  that 
it  was  deemed  unsafe  to  send  back  for  them,  and  they  were  thus  lost.  No  arms, 
cannon,  or  prisoners  were  taken  by  the  enemy  in  battle,  but  only  such  as  were  left 


38  THE   THIRD    YEAR    OF   THE    WAR. 

The  enemy  in  force  reached  our  front  on  the  12th.  A  posi 
tion  had  been  previously  selected  to  cover  the  Potomac  from 
Williamsport  to  Falling  Waters,  and  an  attack  was  awaited 
during  that  and  the  succeeding  day.  This  did  not  take  place, 
though  the  two  armies  were  in  close  proximity,  the  enemy 
being  occupied  in  fortifying  his  own  lines.  Our  preparations 
being  completed,  and  the  river,  though  still  deep,  being  pro 
nounced  fordable,  the  army  commenced  to  withdraw  to  the 
south  side  on  the  night  of  the  loth.  The  enemy  offered  no 
serious  interruption,  and  the  movement  was  attended  with  no 
loss  of  material,  except  a  few  disabled  wagons  and  two  pieces  • 
of  artillery,  which  the  horses  were  unable  to  move  through  the 
deep  mud. 

The  following  day  the  army  marched  to  Bunker  Hill,  in  the 
vicinity  of  which  it  encamped  for  several  days.  It  subse 
quently  crossed  the  Blue  Ridge,  and  took  position  south  of  the 
Rappahannock. 

Any  comment  on  Gettysburg  must  necessarily  be  a  tantaliz 
ing  one  for  the  South.  The  Pennsylvania  campaign  had  been 
a  series  of  mishaps.  General  Lee  was  disappointed  of  half  of 
his  plan,  in  the  first  instance,  on  account  of  the  inability  or 
unwillingness  of  the  Richmond  authorities  to  assemble  an 
army  at  Culpepper  Court-house  under  General  Beauregard,  so 
as  to  distract  the  enemy  and  divide  his  force  by  a  demonstra 
tion  upon  Washington.  Johnston  was  calling  for  reinforce 
ments  in  Mississippi ;  Bragg  was  threatened  with  attack ; 
Beauregard's  whole  force  was  reported  to  be  necessary  to 
cover  his  line  on  the  sea-coast ;  and  the  force  in  Richmond  * 
and  in  North  Carolina  was  very  small.  Yet  with  what  force 
Lee  had,  his  campaign  proposed  great  things — the  destruction 
of  his  adversary,  which  would  have  uncovered  the  Middle  and 
Eastern  States  of  the  North  ;  for,  behind  Meade's  array,  there  . 
was  nothing  but  militia  mobs  and  home-guards  incapable  of 
making  any  resistance  to  an  army  of  veterans.  It  was  in 


behind  under  the  circumstances  I  have  described.  The  number  of  stragglers  thus 
lost,  I  am  unable  to  state  with  accuracy,  but  it  is  greatly  exaggerated  in  the  despatch 
referred  to. 

I  am,  with  great  respect, 

Your  obedient  servant, 

E.  E.  LEE,  General. 


THE    THIRD    YEAR   OF    THE    WAR.  39 

anticipation  of  this  great  stake  that  Richmond  was  on  the 
tiptoe  of  expectation.  For  once  in  the  Confederate  capital 
gold  found  no  purchasers,  prices  declined,  speculation  was  at 
its  wits'  end,  and  men  consulted  their  interests  as  if  on  the  eve 
of  peace. 

The  recoil  at  Gettysburg  was  fatal,  perhaps,  not  necessarily, 
but  by  the  course  of  events,  to  General  Lee's  campaign ;  and 
the  return  of  his  army  to  its  defensive  lines  in  Virginia  was 
justly  regarded  in  the  South  as  a  reverse  in  the  general  for 
tunes  of  the  contest.  Yet  the  immediate  results  of  the  battle 
of  Gettysburg  must  be  declared  to  have  been  to  a  great  extent 
negative.  The  Confederates  did  not  gain  a  victory,  neither  did 
the  enemy.  The  general  story  of  the  contest  is  simple.  Lee 
had  been  unable  to  prevent  the  enemy  from  taking  the  high 
lands,  many  of  them  with  very  steep  declivities,  and  nearly  a 
mile  in  slope.  The  battle  was  an  effort  of  the  Confederates  to 
take  those  heights.  The  right  flank,  the  left  flank,  the  centre, 
were  successively  the  aim  of  determined  and  concentrated 
assaults.  The  Yankee  lines  were  broken  and  driven  repeated 
ly.  But  inexhaustible  reserves  and  a  preponderant  artillery, 
advantageously  placed,  saved  him  from  rout. 

The  first  news  received  in  Richmond  of  General  Lee's 
retreat  was  from  Yankee  sources,  which  represented  his  army 
as  a  disorganized  mass  of  fugitives,  unable  to  cross  the  Poto 
mac  on  account  of  recent  floods^  and  at  the  mercy  of  an 
enemy  immensely  superior  in  numbers  and  flushed  with  vic 
tory.  A  day  served  to  dash  the  hope  of  an  early  peace,  and  to 
overcloud  the  horizon  of  the  war. 

A  few  days  brought  news  from  our  lines,  which  exploded 
the  falsehoods  of  the  Yankees,  and  assured  the  people  of  the 
South  that  the  engagements  of  Gettysburg  had  resulted  in 
worsting  the  enemy,  in  killing  and  wounding  a  number 
exceeding  our  own,  and  in  capturing  a  large  number  of  pris 
oners  ;  and  that  the  falling  back  of  our  army,  at  least  as  far  as 
Hagerstown,  was  a  movement  dictated  by  general  considera 
tions  of  strategy  and  prudence. 

And  here  it  must  be  confessed  that  the  retreat  from  Hagers 
town  across  the  Potomac  was  an  inconsequence  and  a  mystery 
to  the  intelligent  public.  Lee's  position  there  was  strong  ;  his 
force  was  certainly  adequate  for  another  battle ;  preparations 


40  THE   THIRD   YEAR    OF   THE   WAR. 

were  apparently  made  for  aggressive  movements ;  and  in  the 
midst  of  all  came  a  sudden  renouncement  of  the  campaign  and 
the  retreat  into  Virginia.  The  public  had  its  secondary  wish 
for  the  safety  of  the  army.  But  this  did  not  exclude  mortifi 
cation  on  the  part  of  those  who  believed  that  General  Lee  had 
abandoned  the 'enemy's  territory,  not  as  a  consequence  of  de 
feat,  but  from  the  undue  timidity  or  arrogant  disposition  of  the 
authorities  who  controlled  him. 

But  news  of  an  overshadowing  calamity,  undoubtedly  the 
greatest  that  had  yet  befallen  the  South,  accompanied  that  of 
Lee's  retreat,  and  dated  a  second  period  of  disaster  more  fright 
ful  than  that  of  Donelson  and  New  Orleans.  The  same  day 
that  Lee's  repulse  was  known  in  Richmond,  came  the  astound 
ing  intelligence  of the  fall  of  Vicksburg.  In  twenty-four  hours 
two  calamities  changed  all  the  aspects  of  the  war,  and  brought 
the  South  from  an  unequalled  exaltation  of  hope  to  the  very 
brink  of  despair. 


THE   THIRD   YEAR   OF   THE   WAR.  41 

LIBRARY  N 

UNIVERSITY  OF 

CHAPTEE  ii.  s^CAUFORj^ 

Vicksburg,  "  the  Heroic  City."— Its  Value  to  the  Confederacy.— An  Opportunity 
Lost  by  Butler.  —  Lieutenant-general  Pemberton. — A  Favorite  of  President  Da 
vis. — The  President's  Obstinacy. — Blindness  of  Pemberton  to  the  Enemy's  De 
signs. — His  Telegram  to  Johnston. — Plan  of  U.  S.  Grant.— Its  Daring. — THE  BATTLE 
OF  PORT  GIBSON. — Exposure  of  General  Bowen  by  Pemberton. — The  First  Mistake. — 
Pemberton's  Disregard  of  Johnston's  Orders. — Grant's  advance  against  Jackson. — 
Johnston's  Evacuation  of  Jackson. — His  Appreciation  of  the  Situation. — Urgent  Or 
ders  to  Pemberton. — A  Brilliant  Opportunity. — Pemberton's  Contumacy  and  Stupid 
ity. — His  Irretrievable  Error. — Yankee  Outrages  in  Jackson. — THE  BATTLE  OF  BAKER'S 
CREEK,  &c. — Stevenson's  Heroic  Fight. — Alleged  Dereliction  of  General  Loririg. — 
His  Division  Cut  Off  in  the  Retreat. — Demoralization  of  Pemberton's  Troops. — The 
Enemy's  Assault  on  the  Big  Black. — Shameful  Behavior  of  the  Confederates. — A 
Georgia  Hero. — Pemberton  and  the  Fugitives. — His  Return  to  Vicksburg. — Recrim 
inations  as  to  the  Disaster  of  the  Big  Black. — How  Pemberton  Was  in  the  Wrong. — 
Johnston  Orders  the  Evacuation  of  Vicksburg.— Pemberton's  Determination  to  Hold 
It. 

VICKSBURG  had  already  become  famous  in  the  history  of  the 
war,  from  the  cupidity  of  the  enemy  and  the  gallantry  of  its 
resistance.  The  habitual  phrase  in  the  Yankee  newspapers 
was — "  the  three  strongholds  of  the  rebellion,  Richmond, 
Vicksburg,  and  Charleston."  The  possession  of  Richmond 
would  have  given  an  important  eclat  to  the  enemy,  and  some 
strategic  advantages.  That  of  Charleston  would  have  given 
him  a  strip  of  sea-coast  and  an  additional  barrier  to  the  block 
ade.  Vicksburg  was  a  prize  almost  as  important  as  Richmond, 
and  much  more  so  than  Charleston.  It  was  the  key  of  the 
navigation  of  the  Mississippi,  and  the  point  of  union  between 
the  positions  of  the  Confederacy  on  the  different  sides  of  this 
river. 

At  the  time  of  the  fall  of  New  Orleans,  the  defence  of  Vicks 
burg  was  not  even  contemplated  by  the  authorities  at  Rich 
mond  ;  and  the  city  was  given  up  for  lost  by  President  Davis, 
as  appears  by  an  intercepted  letter  from  one  of  his  family.  It 
was  a  characteristic  want  of  appreciation  of  the  situation  by 
the  Confederate  Administration.  It  is  not  improbable,  that  if 
Butler  had  had  the  enterprise  and  genius  to  direct  a  land 
attack  against  Vieksburg,  it  might  have  readily  fallen,  on  ac- 


42  THE   THIRD   TEAR    OF   THE    WAR. 

count  of  the  feeble  nature  of  its  defences  and  the  insufficiency 
of  its  garrison.  But  the  tyrant  of  New  Orleans  was  a  rnan 
utterly  destitute  of  military  ability,  whose  ferocious  gen-ius 
was  expended  in  a  war  upon  non-combatants.  He  let  slip  the 
golden  opportunity  which  the  pre-occupation  of  Beauregard 
with  Halleck  gave  him  to  operate  upon  Yicksburg,  and  at  once 
complete  the  Yankee  victory,  which  had  been  gained  at  the 
inouth  of  the  Mississippi. 

The  time  the  enemy  gave  for  strengthening  the  defences  of 
Yicksburg  was  improved ;  and  we  have  seen  in  another  volume 
how  it  passed  comparatively  unscathed  through  one  bombard 
ment  ;  how  it  resisted  Sherman's  expedition  of  1862  ;  and  how 
it  defied  the  gigantic  enterprises  of  the  enemy  to  encompass  it 
with  the  waters  of  the  Mississippi  turned  from  their  channel. 
But,  unfortunately,  the  battle  of  Corinth  had  placed  its  desti 
nies  in  the  hands  of  a  commander  who  had  not  the  confidence 
of  the  army  ;  who  encountered  a  positive  hostility  among  the 
people  within  the  limits  of  his  command  ;  and  whose  haughty 
manner  and  military  affectation  were  ill-calculated  to  win  the 
regard  of  the  soldier  or  reconcile  the  dislike  of  the  civilian. 

But  a  short  time  after  the  battle  referred  to,  Major-general 
Earl  Yan  Dorn  was  removed  from  command,  and  Major-gen 
eral  Pemberton  was  placed  in  command  of  the  Department  of 
Mississippi  and  East  Louisiana,  and,  in  consequence  of  his  be 
ing  outranked  by  both  General  Yan  Dorn  and  General  Lovell, 
was  soon  after  appointed  a  Lieutenant-general.  He  was  raised 
by  a  single  stroke  of  President  Davis's  patronage  from  the  ob 
scurity  of  a  major  to  the  position  of  a  lieutenant-general.  He 
had  never  been  on  a  battle-field  in  the  war,  and  his  reputation 
as  a  commander  was  simply  nothing.  He  was  entirely  the 
creature  of  the  private  and  personal  prejudices  of  President 
Davis.  Never  was  an  appointment  of  this  president  more  self- 
willed  in  its  temper  arid  more  unfortunate  in  its  consequences. 
It  might  have  been  supposed  that  the  fact  that  Pemberton  did 
not  command  the  confidence  of  his  troops  or  of  any  considera 
ble  portion  of  the  public  would,  of  itself,  have  suggested  to  the 
President  the  prudence  of  a  change  of  commanders,  and  dis 
suaded  him  from  his  obstinate  preference  of  a  favorite.  But 
it  had  none  of  this  effect.  The  Legislature  of  Mississippi 
solicited  the  removal  of  Pemberton.  Private  delegations  from 


THE   THIRD   YEAR   OF   THE    WAK.  43 

Congress  entreated  the  President  to  forego  his  personal  preju 
dices  and  defer  to  the  public  wish.  But  Mr.  Davis  had  that 
conceit  of  opinion  which  opposition  readily  confirms ;  and  the 
effect  of  these  remonstrances  was  only  to  increase  his  obstinacy 
and  intensify  his  fondness  for  his  favorite.  To  some  of  them 
he  replied  that  Pemberton  was  "  a  great  military  genius,"  not 
appreciated  by  the  public,  and  destined  on  proper  occasion  to 
astonish  it. 

General  Pemberton  took  command  amid  the  suppressed 
murmurs  of  a  people  to  whom  he  was  singularly  unwelcome. 
The  first  evidence  of  his  want  of  comprehension  was  his  ignor 
ance  and  bewilderment  as  to  the  enemy's  designs.  We  have 
referred  to  the  failure  of  the  canal  projects.  The  enemy,  after 
long-continued  and  streneous  efforts  to  reach  the  right  flank  of 
Yicksburg,  by  forcing  a  passage  through  the  upper  Yazoo 
river,  finally  relinquished  his  design,  and  on  the  nights  of  the 
4th  and  5th  of  April,  re-embarked  his  troops,  and  before  day 
light  was  in  rapid  retreat.  About  the  same  time  a  heavy  force 
of  the  enemy,  which  had  been  collected  at  Baton  Kouge,  was 
mostly  withdrawn  and  transferred  to  western  Louisiana,  leav 
ing  but  one  division  to  occupy  that  place. 

So  blind  was  Pemberton  to  the  designs  of  the  enemy,  that 
for  many  weeks  he  continued  to  believe  that  the  object  of  the 
movements  of  Ulysses  S.  Grant — the  last  commander  sent  from 
Washington  to  contest  the  prize  of  the  Mississippi — was  not 
Yicksburg,  but  Bragg's  army  in  Tennessee.  In  this  delusion, 
and  the  self-complacent  humor  it  inspired,  he  telegraphed  to 
General  Johnston,  on  the  13th  of  April :  "  I  am  satisfied  that 
Rosecrans  will  be  reinforced  from  Grant's  army.  Shall  I 
order  troops  to  Tullahoma?"  The  aberration  was  soon  dis 
pelled.  A  few  days  after  this  despatch,  information  obtained 
from  Memphis  indicated  that  Grant's  retrogade  movement 
was  a  ruse ;  and  thus  suddenly  Pemberton  was  called  upon  to 
prepare  for  one  of  the  most  extraordinary  and  audacious  games 
that  the  enemy  had  yet  attempted  in  this  war. 

We  know  that  it  is  customary  to  depreciate  an  adversary  in 
war,  by  naming  his  enterprise  as  desperation,  and  entitling  his 
success  as  luck.  We  shall  not  treat  with  such  injustice  the 
enemy's  campaign  in  Mississippi.  In  daring,  in  celerity  of 
movement,  and  in  the  vigor  and  decision  of  its  steps  it  was  the 


44  THE    THIRD    YEAR    OF    THE    WAR. 

most  remarkable  of  the  war.  The  plan  of  Grant  was,  in  brief, 
nothing  else  than  to  gain  firm  ground  on  one  of  the  Confederate 
flanks,  which,  to  be  done,  involved  a  march  of  about  one  hun 
dred  and  fifty  miles,  through  a  hostile  country,  and  in  which 
communication  with  the  base  of  supplies  was  liable  at  any 
moment  to  be  permanently  interrupted.  In  addition,  a  resist 
ance  to  his  advance  could  be  anticipated,  of  whose  magnitude 
nothing  was  certainly  known,  and  which,  for  aught  he  knew, 
might  at  any  time  prove  great  enough  to  annihilate  his  entire 
army. 

The  plan  involved  the  enterprise  of  running  a  fleet  of  trans 
ports  past  the  batteries,  crossing  the  troops  from  the  Louisiana 
shore,  below  Yicksburg,  to  Mississippi,  and  then  marching  the 
army,  by  the  way  of  Jackson,  through  the  heart  of  the  Con 
federacy,  so  to  speak,  to  the  rear  of  Yicksburg.  On  the  night 
of  the  22d  of  April,  the  first  demonstration  was  made,  in  ac 
cordance  with  the  newly-formed  plan,  by  the  running  past  our 
batteries  of  three  gunboats  and  seven  transports. 

Grand  Gulf  is  situated  on  the  east  bank  of  the  Mississippi 
river,  immediately  below  the  rnouth  of  the  Big  Black  river. 
It  was  not  selected  as  a  position  for  land-defence,  but  for  the 
protection  of  the  mouth  of  the  Big  Black,  and  also  as  ar  pre 
cautionary  measure  against  the  passage  of  transports,  should 
the  canal  before  referred  to  prove  a  success,  which  then  seemed 
highly  probable.  The  necessary  works  were  constructed  under 
the  direction  of  Brigadier-general  Bowen,  to  defend  the  bat 
teries  against  an  assault  from  the  river  front,  and  against  a  di 
rect  attack  from  or  across  Big  Black. 


THE   BATTLE    OF   PORT    GIBSON. 

The  enemy  having  succeeded  in  getting  his  transports  past 
Yicksburg,  an  attack  on  Grand  Gulf  was  anticipated.  Twelve 
miles  below  this,  at  the  mouth  of  the  Bayou  Pierre,  is  Brains- 
burg,  and  at  this  point  the  enemy  landed  in  heavy  force,  on 
the  30th  of  April,  and  prepared  for  an  advance  movement. 

As  soon  as  General  Bowen  received  information  of  the  land 
ing  of  the  enemy,  he  crossed  Bayou  Pierre,  and  advanced 
towards  PortGibsoj},  situated  several  miles  south-east  of  Grand 


THE   THIRD  YEAR   OF    THE   WAR.  45 

Gulf.  In  the  vicinity  of  this  place  General  Bowen  met  the 
enemy  advancing  in  full  force,  and  immediately  prepared  for 
battle,  having  previously  telegraphed  to  Vicksburg  for  rein 
forcements.  He  was  left  with  a  few  thousand  men  to  confront 
an  overwhelming  force  of  the  enemy,  as  Pemberton  had  in 
sisted  upon  putting  the  Big  Black  between  the  enemy  and  the 
bulk  of  his  own  forces,  which  he  declared  were  necessary  to 
cover  Yicksburg. 

Early  on  the  morning  of  the  1st  of  May,  General  Green,  who 
had  been  sent  out  on  the  Brainsburg  road  with  about  a  thou 
sand  men,  encountered  the  enemy.  He  was  joined  by  General 
Tracy,  with  not  more  than  fifteen  hundred  men.  The  enemy's 
attack  was  sustained  with  great  bravery  until  between  nine 
and  ten  o'clock,  when,  overwhelmed  by  numbers  and  flanked 
on  the  right  and  left,  General  Green  had  to  fall  back.  Courier 
after  courier  had  been  sent  for  General  Baldwin,  who  was  on 
the  way  with  some  reinforcements,  but  his  troops  were  so  ut 
terly  exhausted  that  he  could  not  get  up  in  time  to  prevent 
this.  Just  as  the  retreat  was  taking  place  General  Baldwin 
arrived,  and  was  ordered  to  form  a  new  line  about  one  mile  in 
rear  of  General  Green's  first  position.  General  Baldwin  had 
no  artillery,  and  that  ordered  up  from  Grand  Gulf  had  not 
arrived.  Colonel  Cockrell,  with  three  Missouri  regiments  came 
up  soon  after.  General  Bowen  now  had  all  the  force  at  his 
command  on  the  field,  excepting  three  regiments  and  two 
battalions,  which  occupied  positions  which  he  could  not  re 
move  them  from  until  the  last  moment.  He  ordered  them  up 
about  one  o'clock,  but  only  one  of  them  arrived  in  time  to 
cover  the  retreat  and  burn  the  bridges.  Between  twelve  and 
one  o'clock  General  Bowen  attempted,  with  two  of  Colonel 
Cockrell's  regiments,  to  turn  the  enemy's  right  flank,  and 
nearly  succeeded.  The  enemy  formed  three  brigades  in  front 
of  a  battery,  to  receive  our  charge.  The  first  was  routed,  the 
second  wavered,  but  the  third  stood  firm,  and  after  a  long  and 
desperate  contest,  our  troops  had  to  give  up  the  attempt.  It  is 
probable,  however,  that  this  attack  saved  the  right  from  being 
overwhelmed,  and  kept  the  enemy  back  until  nearly  sunset. 
All  day  long  the  fight  raged  fiercely,  our  men  everywhere 
maintaining  their  ground.  Just  before  sunset  a  desperate  at 
tack  was  maxle  by  the  enemy,  they  having  again  received  fresh 


46  THE   THIRD    YEAR    OF    THE    WAR. 

troops.  Our  right  was  forced  to  give  ground,  and  General  Bo  wen 
was  reluctantly  compelled  to  fall  back.  The  order  was  given  and 
executed  without  confusion.  The  enemy  attempted  no  pursuit. 

Though  unsuccessful,  the  bloody  encounter  in  front  of  Port 
Gibson  nobly  illustrated  the  valor  and  constancy  of  our  troops, 
and  shed  additional  lustre  upon  the  Confederate  arms.  In  his 
official  report,  General  Bovven  declared  that  the  enemy's  force 
engaged  exceeded  twenty  thousand,  while  his  own  did  not 
number  over  fifty-five  hundred. 

It  was  the  first  mistake  with  which  Pemberton  had  opened 
his  chapter  of  disasters.  On  the  28th  of  April  he  ascertained 
that  the  enemy  was  landing  troops  at  Hard  Times,  on  the  west 
bank  of  the  river ;  he  became  satisfied  that  neither  the  front 
nor  right  (north)  of  Yicksburg  would  be  attacked,  and  he 
turned  his  attention  to  the  left  (south)  of  Yicksburg  ;  but  un 
fortunately  he  did  not  concentrate  "«Z£"  his  troops  on  that 
side  of  Yicksburg.  On  the  29th  of  April  he  telegraphed  Gen 
eral  Johnston  that  the  enemy  were  at  Hard  Times,  and  "  can 
cross  to  Brainsburg ;"  and  on  the  1st  of  May  that  "  a  furious 
battle  has  been  going  on  all  day  below  Port  Gibson."  On  the 
2d  of  May  General  Johnston  replied:  "If  General  Grant 
crosses  unite  all  your  troops  to  beat  him.  Success  will  give 
back  what  was  abandoned  to  win  it."  Unfortunately  it  was  not 
done.  His  explanation  why  it  was  not  done,  was,  that  to  have 
inarched  an  army  across  Big  Black  of  sufficient  strength  to 
warrant  a  reasonable  hope  of  successfully  encountering  his  very 
superior  forces,  would  have  stripped  Yicksburg  and  its  essen 
tially  flank  defences  of  their  garrisons,  and  the  city  itself  might 
have  fallen  an  easy  prey  into  the  eager  hands  of  the  enemy. 
His  apprehensions  for  the  safety  of  Yicksburg  were  morbid. 
While  he  was  gazing  at  Yicksburg,  Grant  was  turning  towards 
Jackson. 

The  battle  of  Port  Gibson  won,  Grant  pushed  his  columns 
directly  towards  Jackson.  Pemberton's  want  of  cavalry  did 
not  permit  the  interruption  of  Grant's  communications,  and 
he  moved  forward  unmolested  to  Clinton.  General  Pember 
ton  anticipated  "  a  raid  on  Jackson,"  and  ordered  the  removal 
of  "  the  staff  department  and  all  valuable  stores  to  the  east;" 
but  he  regarded  Edwards'  Depot  and  the  Big  Black  Bridge  as 
the  objects  of  Grant's  movement- to  the  eastward. 


THE    THIRD    YEAR    OF    THE    WAE.  4:7 

The  movement  of  the  enemy  was  one  of  extreme  peril.  On 
one  flank  was  General  Joseph  E.  Johnston  with  a  force  whose 
strength  was  unknown  to  General  Grant ;  and  on  the  other  was 
Lieutenant-general  Pemberton.  To  have  remained  at  Grand 
Gulf  would  have  ruined  the  Federal  army,  and,  with  this  know 
ledge,  Grant  determined  to  make  certain  movements  on  the 
west  bank  of  the  Big  Black,  while  he  marched  rapidly  on  Jack 
son,  Mississippi,  with  his  main  force.  The  object  of  the  Yankee 
commander  was  to  make  sure  of  no  enemy  being  in  his  rear 
when  he  inarched  on  Yicksburg. 

By  glancing  at  a  map  it  will  be  seen  that  the  country  in 
cluded  between  Grand  Gulf,  Jackson  and  Big  Black  river,  at 
the  railroad  crossing,  forms  a  triangle.  In  moving  forward, 
Grant's  forces  kept  upon  the  line  which  leads  from  Grand  Gulf 
to  Jackson  ;  but,  instead  of  all  going  to  Jackson,  as  might  have 
been  expected,  the  advance  only  continued  toward  that  point, 
while  the  remainder  of  the  army  turned  off  to  the  left,  at  in 
tervals,  and  proceeded  along  lines  which  converged  until  they 
met  in  the  angle  of  the  triangle  located  at  the  Big  Black  rail 
road  crossing. 

Many  persons  have  doubtless  been  astonished  at  the  ease 
with  which  Grant's  forces  advanced  upon  and  took  possession 
of  Jackson.  Its  importance  as  a  railroad  centre  and  a  depot 
for  Confederate  supplies  warranted  the  anticipation  that  the 
place  would  be  vigorously  defended  and  only  surrendered  in 
the  last  extremity. 

Unfortunately  such  a  resistance  could  not  be  made.  General 
Johnston  had  arrived  too  late  to  prepare  a  defence  of  the  capital 
of  Mississippi.  On  reaching  Jackson,  on  the  night  of  the  13th 
of  May,  he  found  there  but  two  brigades  numbering  not  more 
than  six  thousand  men  ;  and,  with  the  utmost  that  could  be 
relied  upon  from  the  reinforcements  on  the  way,  he  could  not 
expect  to  confront  the  enemy  with  more  than  eleven  thousand 
men.  But  he  comprehended  the  situation  with  instant  and 
decisive  sagacity.  He  ascertained"  that  General  Pemberton's 
forces,  except  the  garrison  of  Port  Hudson  (five  thousand)  and 
of  Yicksburg,  were  at  Edwards'  Depot — the  general's  head- 
quarter's  at  Bovina  ;  and  that  four  divisions  of  the  enemy, 
under  Sherman,  occupied  Clinton,  ten  miles  west  of  Jackson, 
between  Edwards'  Depot  and  ourselves. 


48  THE   THIRD    YEAR    OF    THE    WAR. 

Not  a  moment  was  to  be  lost.  A  despatch  was  hurried  to 
Pemberton  on  the  same  night  (13th),  informing  him  of  John 
ston's  arrival,  and  of  the  occupation  of  Clinton  by  a  portion  of 
Grant's  army,  urging  the  importance  of  re-establishing  com 
munications,  and  ordering  him  to  come  up,  if  practicable,  on 
Sherman's  rear  at  once,  and  adding,  "  to  beat  such  a  detach 
ment  would  be  of  immense  value."  "  The  troops  here,"  wrote 
Johnston,  "  could  co-operate.  All  the  strength  you  can  quickly 
assemble  should  be  brought.  Time  is  all-important." 

It  appears  from  General  Pemberton's  official  report  that  he 
had  preconceived  a  plan  of  battle ;  that  he  expected  to  fight  at 
Edwards'  Depot;  and  that  he  was  unwilling  to  separate  him 
self  further  from  Vicksburg,  which  he  regarded  as  his  base. 
He  had  the  choice  of  disobeying  Johnston's  orders,  and  falling 
back  upon  his  own  matured  plan,  or  of  obeying  them,  and 
taking  the  brilliant  hazard  of  crushing  an  important  detach 
ment  of  the  enemy.  He  did  neither.  He  attempted  a  middle 
course — a  compromise  between  his  superior's  orders  and  his 
own  plans,  the  weak  shift  and  fatal  expedient  of  military  in- 
competency.  He  telegraphed  to  Johnston,  "I  comply  at  once 
with  your  order."  Yet  he  did  not  move  for  twenty-eight  hours. 
A  council  of  war  had  been  called,  and  a  majority  of  officers 
approved  the  movement  indicated  by  General  Johnston.  Pem 
berton  opposed  it ;  but  he  says,  "  I  did  not,  however,  see  fit  to 
put  my  own  judgment  and  opinion  so  far  in  opposition  as  to 
prevent  a  movement  altogether."  So  he  determined  upon  an 
advance,  not  to  risk  an  attack  on  Sherman,  but,  as  he  says,  to  cut 
the  enemy's  communications.  He  abandoned  his  own  former 
plans  ;  he  disobeyed  Johnston's  order,  and  invented  a  compro 
mise  equally  reprehensible  for  the  vacillation  of  his  purpose 
and  the  equivocation  of  his  despatch.  He  moved,  not  on  Sher 
man's  rear  at  Clinton,  but  in  another  direction  toward  Ray 
mond.  The  purpose  of  General  Johnston's  order  was  to  unite 
the  two  armies  and  attack  a  detachment  of  the  enemy.  The 
result  of  General  Pemberton's  movement  towards  Raymond 
was  to  prevent  this  union,  and  to  widen  the  distance  between 
the  two  armies. 

In  a  moral  view,  it  is  difficult  to  find  any  term  but  that  of 
the  harshest  censure  for  this  trifling  compromise  of  General 
Pemberton  between  the  orders  of  his  superior  and  the  prefer- 


THE   THIRD   TEAR   OF   THE    WAR.  49 

ences  of  his  own  mind.  In  a  military  view  it  was  equally  re 
prehensible.  When  the  several  corps  of  the  enemy  were 
separated  into  two  or  more  distinct  columns,  separated  by 
twelve  or  fifteen  miles,  it  would  be  naturally  supposed  that  the 
true  opportunity  of  Pemberton  would  have  been  to  strike  at 
one  separately,  rather  than  to  wait  until  all  the  enemy's  forces 
concentrated,  and  attacked  him  on  his  uncertain  march. 

The  error  was  irretrievable.  While  General  Pemberton  was 
in  "  council  of  war,"  on  the  14th,  the  enemy,  from  Clinton  and 
Raymond,  marched  on  Jackson  and  compelled  its  evacuation. 
Had  General  Pemberton  promptly  obeyed  General  Johnston's 
order,  and  boldly  marched  on  Clinton,  the  enemy  could  not 
have  marched  to  Jackson,  as  that  would  have  been  to  facilitate 
the  union  of  Johnston  and  Pemberton  and  to  have  encountered 
their  concentrated  armies.  The  audacity  of  Johnston's  order, 
if  executed,  might  have  reversed  the  fate  of  Yicksburg.  The 
vacillation  of  General  Pemberton,  and  his  loss  of  a  day  and  a 
half,  caused  the  evacuation  of  Jackson,  and  opened  the  way 
to  Yicksburg. 

The  occupation  of  Jackson  was  the  occasion  of  the  usual 
scenes  of  Yankee  outrage.  The  watchword  of  McPherson's 
corps,  which  first  entered  it,  was  plunder.  The  negroes  were 
invited  to  assist  and  share  in  the  pillage.  Supposing  that  the 
year  of  jubilee  had  finally  come,  the  blacks  determined  to  en 
joy  it,  and,  with  this  end  in  view,  they  stole  everything  they 
could  carry  off.  "  Nothing,"  says  a  Yankee  spectator,  "  came 
amiss  to  these  rejoicing  Africans  ;  they  went  around  the  streets 
displaying  aggregate  miles  of  double-rowed  ivory,  and  bend 
ing  under  a  monstrous  load  of  French  mirrors,  boots,  shoes, 
pieces  of  calico,  wash-stands  and  towels,  hoop-skirts,  bags  of 
tobacco,  parasols,  umbrellas,  and  fifty  other  articles  equally 
incongruous." 

McPherson  left  Jackson  on  the  afternoon  of  the  15th,  and, 
in  the  morning  of  the  next  day,  Sherman's  corps  took  up  its 
line — the  whole  moving  westward  along  the  south  side  of  the 
railroad  to  Yicksburg.  As  the  enemy  left  Jackson  it  resem 
bled  more  the  infernal  regions  than  the  abode  of  civilization. 
Vast  volumes  of  smoke  lay  over  it,  through  which,  here  and 
there,  rolled  fiercely  up  great  mountains  of  flame,  that  made 
infernal  music  over  their  work  of  destruction.  The  Confederate 

4 


50  THE   THIRD   TEAR    OF   THE    WAR. 

State-house — a  large  new  wooden  building — the  Penitentiary, 
several  private  house  and  several  government  buildings  were 
all  in  flames.  It  was  the  first  step  of  that  catalogue  of  horrors 
of  invasion  in  which  Mississippi  was  to  rival  Virginia,  and  the 
Big  Black  was  to  be  associated  with  the  Potomac  in  the  ghastly 
romances  of  ruin  and  desolation. 

We  return  to  Pemberton  and  his  ill-starred  march.  On  the 
15th,  at  the  head  of  a  column  of  seventeen  thousand  men,  he 
had  taken  the  direction  of  Raymond.  On  the  morning  of  the 
16th,  at  about  six  and  a  half  o'clock,  he  ascertained  that  his 
pickets  were  skirmishing  with  the  enemy  on  the  Raymond 
road,  some  distance  in  his  front.  At  the  same  moment  a  cour- 
rier  arrived  and  handed  him  a  despatch  from  General  Johnston 
announcing  the  evacuation  of  Jackson,  and  indicating  that  the 
only  means  by  which  a  union  could  now  be  effected  between 
the  two  forces  was  that  Pemberton  should  move  directly  to 
Clinton,  whither  Johnston  was  retiring.  The  order  of  counter 
march  was  given  by  Pemberton.  It  was  too  late.  Just  as 
this  reverse  movement  commenced,  the  enemy  drove  in  his 
cavalry  pickets,  and  opened  with  artillery,  at  long  range,  on 
the  head  of  his  column  on  the  Raymond  road.  The  demon 
strations  of  the  enemy  soon  becoming  more  serious,  orders 
were  sent  by  General  Pemberton  to  the  division  commanders 
to  form  in  line  of  battle  on  the  cross-road  from  the  Clinton  to 
the  Raymond  road — Loring  on  the  right,  Bowen  in  the  centre, 
and  Stevenson  on  the  left.  The  enemy  had  forced  the  Con 
federates  to  give  battle  on  the  ground  of  his  own  selection, 
under  the  disadvantages  of  inferior  numbers  and  in  circum 
stances  which  had  all  the  moral  effect  of  a  surprise. 


THE  BATTLE  OF  BAKER  S  CREEK,  ETC. 

But  the  ground  itself  was  not  unfavorable  to  our  troops. 
The  line  of  battle  was  quickly  formed,  in  a  bend  of  what  is 
known  as  Baker's  creek,  without  any  interference  on  the  part 
of  the  enemy  ;  the  position  selected  was  naturally  a  strong  one, 
and  all  approaches  from  the  front  well  covered.  The  enemy 
made  his  first  demonstration  on  our  right,  but,  after  a  lively 
artillery  duel  for  an  hour  or  more,  this  attack  was  relinquished 


THE   THIRD   TEAK   OF   THE   WAR.  51 

and  a  large  force  was  thrown  against  our  left,  where  skirmish 
ing  became  heavy  about  ten  o'clock,  and  the  battle  began  in 
earnest  along  Stevenson's  entire  front  about  noon. 

At  this  time  Major-general  Loring  was  ordered  to  move  for 
ward,  and  crush  the  enemy  in  his  front,  and  General  Bowen 
was  directed  to  co-operate  with  him  in  the  movement.  The 
movement  was  not  made  by  Loring.  He  replied  that  the 
enemy  was  too  strongly  posted  to  be  attacked,  but  that  he 
would  avail  himself  of  the  first  opportunity  of  successful  as 
sault.  The  opportunity  never  came  to  him. 

Stevenson's  troops  sustained  the  heavy  and  repeated  attacks 
of  the  enemy.  Six  thousand,  five  hundred  men  held  in  check 
four  divisions  of  the  enemy,  numbering,  from  his  own  state 
ment,  twenty-five  thousand  men.  Such  endurance  has  its 
limits.  The  only  reinforcements  that  came  to  the  relief  of 
these  devoted  men  were  two  brigades  of  Bowen,  among  them 
Cockrell's  gallant  Missourians.  This  was  about  half-past  two 
o'clock.  The  combined  charge  of  these  forces  for  a  moment 
turned  the  tide  of  battle.  But  the  enemy  still  continued  to 
move  troops  from  his  left  to  his  right,  thus  increasing  his 
vastly  superior  forces  against  Stevenson's  and  Bowen's  divis 
ions.  Again  orders  were  despatched  to  General  Loring  to 
move  to  the  left  as  rapidly  as  possible  leaving  force  enough 
only  to  cover  the  bridge  and  ford  at  Baker's  Creek.  He  did 
not  come.  He  seems  still  to  have  been  engaged  with  the 
movements  of  the  enemy  in  his  front,  and  to  have  supposed 
that  they  were  endeavoring  to  flank  him. 

In  the  mean  time  the  contest  raged  along  Stevenson's  lines, 
the  enemy  continuing  his  line  movement  to  our  left.  Here 
were  displays  of  gallantry,  which,  unable  to  retrieve  the  disas 
ter,  adorned  it  with  devotion.  Here  fell  the  gallant  Captain 
Ridley,  commanding  a  battery,  refusing  to  leave  his  guns, 
single-handed  and  alone  fighting  until  he  fell,  pierced  with  six 
shots,  receiving,  even  from  his  enemies,  the  highest  tribute  of 
admiration.  Nothing  could  protect  the  artillery  horses  from 
the  deadly  fire  of  the  enemy ;  almost  all  were  killed,  and 
along  the  whole  line,  the  pieces,  though  fought  with  despera 
tion,  on  the  part  of  both  officers  and  men,  almost  all  fell  into 
the  hands  of  the  enemy.  In  this  manner  the  guns  of  Corput's 
and  Johnston's  batteries,  and  Waddell's  section,  were  lost. 


THE   THIRD   YEAK   OF   THE    WAK. 

Double  shotted,  they  were  fired  until,  in  many  instances, 
swarms  of  the  enemy  were  in  amongst  them.  Officers  and 
men  stood  by  them  to  the  very  latest  moment  that  they  could 
be  served. 

About  5  o'clock  P.  M.,  a  portion  of  Stevenson's  division  broke 
and  fell  back  in  disorder.  General  Pemberton  rode  up  to 
Stevenson  and  told  him  that  he  had  repeatedly  ordered  two 
brigades  of  Loring  to  his  assistance.  The  brave  commander, 
who  had  fought  the  enemy  since  morning,  replied  that  the  re 
lief  would  be  too  late  and  that  he  could  no  longer  hold  the 
field.  "  Finding,"  says  General  Pemberton,  "  that  the  enemy's 
vastly  superior  numbers  were  pressing  all  my  forces  engaged 
steadily  back  into  old  fields,  where  all  advantages  of  position 
would  be  in  his  favor,  I  felt  it  too  late  to  save  the  day  even 
should  Brigadier-general  Featherstone's  brigade  of  General 
Loring's  division  come  up  immediately.  I  could,  however, 
learn  nothing  of  General  Loring's  whereabouts  ;  several  of  my 
staff  officers  were  in  search  of  him,  but  it  was  not  until  after 
General  Bowen  had  personally  informed  me  that  he  could  not 
hold  his  position,  and  not  until  I  had  ordered  the  retreat,  that 
General  Loring,  with  Featherstone's  brigade,  moving,  as  I  sub 
sequently  learned,  by  a  country  road,  which  was  considerably 
longer  than  the  direct  route,  reached  the  position  on  the  left, 
known  as  Champion's  Hill,  where  he  was  forming  line  of  bat 
tle  when  he  received  my  order  to  cover  the  retreat.  Had  the 
movement  in  support  of  the  left  been  promptly  made,  when 
first  ordered,  it  is  not  improbable  that  I  might  have  main 
tained  my  position,  and  it  is  possible  the  enemy  might  have 
been  driven  back,  though  his  vastly  superior  and  constantly 
increasing  numbers  would  have  rendered  it  necessary  to  with 
draw  during  the  night  to  save  my  communications  with  Yicks- 
burg."* 

*  In  a  correspondence  which  ensued  between  the  Richmond  authorities  and 
General  Pemberton  as  to  the  cause  of  the  defeat,  the  Secretary  of  War  wrote, 
in  a  letter  dated  October  1st,  1863  :  "  I  should  be  pleased  to  know  if  General 
Loring  had  been  ordered  to  attack  before  General  Cummings'  brigade  gave 
way ;  and  whether,  in  your  opinion,  had  Stevenson's  division  been  promptly 
sustained,  the  troops  with  him  would  have  fought  with  so  little  tenacity  and 
resolution  as  a  portion  of  them  exhibited  ?  Have  you  had  any  explanation  of 
the  extraordinary  failure  of  General  Loring  to  comply  with  your  reiterated  or 
ders  to  attack  ?  And  do  you  feel  assured  your  orders  were  received  by  him  ? 


THE   THIRD   YEAR   OF   THE   WAR.  53 

But  the  disaster  of  the  day  was  not  yet  complete.  The  re 
treat  of  the  Confederates  was  by  the  ford  and  bridge  of  Baker's 
Creek.  Boweri's  division  was  directed  to  take  position  on  the 
left  bank,  and  to  hold  the  crossing  until  Loring's  division, 
which  was  directed  to  bring  up  the  rear,  had  effected  the  pas 
sage*  The  intelligence  of  the  approach  of  Loring  was  awaited 
in  vain.  Probably  another  unfortunate  misapprehension  had 
occurred.  He  had  covered  the  retreat  with  great  spirit.  It 
was  in  this  part  of  the  contest  that  Brigadier-general  Lloyd 
Tilghman,  one  of  the  bravest  officers  in  the  Confederate  army, 
fell,  pierced  through  his  manly  breast  with  a  fragment  of  a 
shell.  He  was  serving  with  his  own  hands  a  twelve-pound 
howitzer,  trying  to  dislodge  a  piece  which  was  annoying  the 
retreat.  It  is  said  that  General  Loring  was  under  the  impres 
sion  that  a  force  of  the  enemy  had  got  in  the  rear  of  the 
bridge,  and  that  Stevenson  had  been  compelled  to  continue  his 
retreat  in  the  direction  of  Edwards'  Depot.  At  any  rate,  he 
resolved  to  make  his  retreat  through  the  east,  turn  Jackson, 
and  effect  a  junction  with  the  forces  of 'General  Johnston,  then 
supposed  to  be  near  Canton.  He  succeeded,  but  with  the  loss 
of  his  artillery. 

Pemberton  had  retired  from  the  battle-field  with  a  demoral 
ized  army.  It  had  lost  nearly  all  of  its  artillery  ;  it  was  weak 
ened  by  the  absence  of  General  Loring's  division  ;  it  had 
already  shown  the  fatal  sign  of  straggling ;  and,  worse  than 
all,  it  had  conceived  a  distrust  of  its  commander,  who  had  car 
ried  his  troops  by  a  vague  and  wandering  march  on  the  very 
front  of  the  concentrated  forces  of  the  enemy. 

On  Sunday  morning,  the  17th  of  May,  the  enemy  advanced 
in  force  against  the  works  erected  on  the  Big  Black.  The 
river,  where  it  is  crossed  by  the  railroad  bridge,  makes  a  bend 
somewhat  in  the  shape  of  a  horse-shoe.  Across  this  horse-shoe, 

His  conduct,  unless  explained  by  some  misapprehension,  is  incomprehensible 
to  me." 

To  this  General  Pemberton  replied,  on  the  10th  of  November:  "General 
Loring  had  been  ordered  to  attack  before  General  Cummings'  brigade  gave  way, 
and  the  order  had  been  again  and  again  repeated ;  and,  in  my  opinion,  '  had 
Stevenson's  division  been  promptly  sustained,'  his  troops  would  have  deported 
themselves  gallantly  and  creditably.  I  have  received  no  explanation  of  '  the 
extraordinary  failure  of  General  Loring  to  comply  with  my  reiterated  orders  to 
attack ;'  and  I  do  feel '  assured  that  my  orders  were  received  by  him. '  " 


54  THE   THIRD   TEAR   OF   THE   WAR. 

at  its  narrowest  part,  a  line  of  rifle-pits  had  been  constructed, 
making  an  excellent  cover  for  infantry,  and,  at  proper  inter 
vals,  dispositions  were  made  for  field  artillery.  The  line  of 
pits  ran  nearly  north  and  south,  and  was  about  a  mile  in  length. 
North  of,  and  for  a  considerable  distance  south  of  the  railroad, 
and  of  a  dirt-road  to  Edwards'  Depot,  nearly  parallel  with  it 
extended  a  bayou,  which,  in  itself,  opposed  a  serious  obstacle 
to  an  assault  upon  the  pits.  This  line  abutted  north  on  the 
river,  and  south  upon  a  cypress  brake,  which  spread  itself 
nearly  to  the  bank  of  the  river.  In  addition  to  the  railroad 
bridge,  which  had  been  floored  for  the  passage  over  of  artillery 
and  wagons,  a  steamer,  from  which  the  machinery  had  been 
taken,  was  converted  into  a  bridge,  by  placing  her  fore-and- 
aft  across  the  river.  Between  the  works  and  the  bridge,  about 
three-quarters  of  a  mile,  the  country  was  open,  being  either 
clear  or  cultivated  fields,  affording  no  cover  should  the  troops 
be  drawn  from  the  trenches.  East  and  north  of  the  railroad, 
the  country  over  which  the  enemy  must  necessarily  pass  was 
similar  to  those  above  described  ;  but  north  of  the  railroad, 
and  about  three  hundred  yards  in  front  of  the  rifle-pits,  a 
copse  of  wood  extended  from  the  road  to  the  river.  Our  line 
was  manned  on  the  right  by  the  gallant  Cockrell's  Missouri 
brigade,  the  extreme  left  by  Brigadier- general  Green's  Missouri 
and  Arkansas  men,  both  of  Bowen's  division,  and  the  centre 
by  Brigadier-general  Yaughan's  brigade  of  east  Tennesseeans, 
in  all  about  four  thousand  men,  as  many  as  could  be  advan 
tageously  employed  in  defending  the  line  with  about  twenty 
pieces  of  field  artillery. 

The  position  was  one  of  extraordinary  strength,  yet  this 
position  was  abandoned  by  our  troops,  almost  without  a  strug 
gle,  and  with  the  loss  of  nearly  all  that  remained  of  our  artil 
lery. 

It  would  be  well  if  this  page  could  be  omitted  from  our  mar 
tial  records,  and  its  dishonor  spared.  But  it  is  easily  told,  and 
the  charitable  reader  is  already  prepared  for  it.  Early  in  the 
morning  the  enemy  opened  his  artillery  at  long  range,  and 
very  soon  pressed  forward,  with  infantry,  into  the  copse  oi 
wood  north  of  the  railroad  ;  about  the  same  time  he  opened  on 
Colonel  CockrelPs  position  with  two  batteries,  and  advanced  a 
line  of  skirmishers,  throwing  forward  a  column  of  infantry, 


THE    THIRD    YEAR    OF   THE    WAR.  55 

which  was  quickly  driven  back  by  our  batteries.  Pretty 
heavy  skirmishing  was,  for  awhile,  kept  up  along  our  whole 
line,  but  presently  the  enemy,  who  had  massed  a  large  force 
in  the  woods  immediately  north  of  the  railroad,  advanced  at  a 
run  with  loud  cheers.  -  Our  troops  in  their  front  did  not 
remain  to  receive  them,  but  broke  and  fled  precipitately. 

The  retreat  was  disgraceful.  It  soon  became  a  matter  of 
sauve  qui  pent.  A  strong  position,  with  an  ample  force  of 
infantry  and  artillery  to  hold  it,  was  shamefully  abandoned, 
almost  without  resistance.  Between  the  troops  occupying  the 
centre  and  the  enemy  there  was  an  almost  impassable  bayou. 
They  fled  before  the  enemy  had  reached  that  obstacle.  In 
this  precipitate  retreat  but  little  order  was  observed,  the  object 
with  all  being  to  reach  the  bridge  as  rapidly  as  possible. 
Many  were  unable  to  do  so,  but  effected  their  escape  by  swim 
ming  the  river  ;  some  were  drowned  in  the  attempt.  A  con 
siderable  number,  unable  to  swim,  and  others  too  timid  to 
expose  themselves  to  the  fire  of  the  enemy  by  an  effort  to 
escape,  remained  in  the  trenches,  and  were  made  prisoners. 
A  captain,  who  disgraced  the  Confederate  uniform,  laid  down 
in  the  rifle-pits,  and  was  captured  by  the  enemy.  Another 
behaved  more  bravely.  Captain  Osborne,  of  the  Thirty-sixth 
Georgia,  took  his  place  just  behind  his  line,  and,  with  drawn 
revolver,  swore  he  would  shoot  the  first  unwourided  man  who 
turned  his  back.  The  consequence  was  that  his  company,  and 
the  fragment  of  another,  were  soon  left  alone  in  the  field  where 
the  steady  line  of  the  enemy  were  advancing  under  the  smoke 
of  their  own  murderous  fire.  Completely  flanked,  and  in  peril 
of  capture,  he  gave  the  order  to  "  march  a  retreat,"  but  still 
with  revolver  and  voice  checking  any  unwise  or  unbecoming 
haste.  When  satisfied  with  his  distance,  he  halted  his  com 
pany,  and  dressed  the  line  ;  just  then  General  Gumming  rode 
up,  and,  taking  off  his  hat,  said :  "  Captain,  I  compliment 
you  upon  having  the  only  organized  body  of  men  on  the 
field." 

Lieutenant-general  Pemberton  rode  up  and  down  the  lines 
trying  to  rally  the  men ;  but  his  courage  was  not  well  re 
warded.  One  of  his  staff  threatened  to  shoot  a  runaway  with 
his  pistol.  "  Bigger  guns  than  that,  back  there,"  said  the  sol 
dier,  and  went  on. 


56  THE   THIED   YEAR   OF   THE   WAR. 

General  Pemberton  told  a  fellow  to  stop  and  to  go  back, 
and,  to  give  force  to  the  order,  said  :  "  I  am  Lieutenant-general 
Pemberton,  commanding  this  department."  The  fellow  looked 
up  and  said,  "  You  are !" — and  proceeded  the  same  way. 

Who  could  have  recognized  in  the  flying  mob  the  same  men 
whose  heroic  defence  of  Yicksburg  had  attracted  the  attention 
and  won  the  applause  of  the  world  ! 

About  ten  o'clock,  Sunday  night,  the  main  body  of  Pem- 
berton's  army  entered  Vicksburg.  A  scene  of  terror  ensued. 
Many  planters  living  near  the  city  with  their  families,  aban 
doned  their  homes  and  entered  our  lines  with  the  Confederate 
forces.  The  stillness  of  the  Sabbath  night  was  broken  in  upon, 
and  an  uproar  in  which  the  blasphemous  oath  of  the  soldier 
and  the  cry  of  the  child  mingled,  heightened  the  effect  of  a 
scene  which  the  pen  cannot  depict.  There  were  many  gentle 
women  and  tender  children,  torn  from  their  homes  by  the  ad 
vance  of  a  ruthless  foe  and  compelled  to  fly  to  our  lines  for 
protection ;  and  mixed  up  with  them,  in  one  vast  crowd,  were 
the  gallant  men  who  had  left  Yicksburg  three  short  weeks 
befoie  in  all  the  pride  and  confidence  of  a  just  cause,  and  return 
ing  to  it  under  the  shame  of  a  defeat,  and  with  the  panic  of  a 
mob. 

It  is  not  necessary  to  enter  at  length  into  the  recrimination 
which  ensued  between  Pemberton  and  Johnston,  as  to  the 
memorable  disaster  of  the  Big  Black.  It  was  argued  on  Pem- 
berton's  side  that  had  it  not  been  for  Johnston's  order  to  move 
on  the  enemy  at  Canton,  he  never  would  have  advanced  in 
any  direction  beyond  the  Big  Black.  To  this  the  reply  of 
General  Johnston  was  neat  and  conclusive.  "It  was,"  he 
said,  "  a  new  military  principle  that  when  an  officer  disobeys 
a  positive  order  of  his  superior,  that  superior  becomes  respon 
sible  for  any  measure  his  subordinate  may  choose  to  substitute 
for  that  ordered." 

Pemberton  had  neither  obeyed  the  order  referred  to,  nor 
fallen  back  upon  his  original  plan  ;  he  had  supplanted  both  by 
.a  new  movement  which  concluded  in  one  of  the  worst  disas 
ters  of  the  war.  The  order  of  the  13th  directed  truly  a  "  haz 
ardous  movement,"  but  it  was  nevertheless  a  great  conception 
—it  was  one  of  those  bold  and  audacious  moves  that  charac 
terize  military  genius,  and  is  a  practical  illustration  of  Kapo- 


THE   THIED   TEAK   OF  THE   WAE.  57 

leon's  maxim,  that  "  a  great  captain  supplies  all  deficiencies  by 
his  courage,  and  marches  boldly  to  meet  the  attack."  It  was 
a  wise  order,  for  it  tended  to  concentration  and  the  union  of 
both  detachments  of  his  army ;  and,  if  promptly  and  boldly 
executed,  might  have  resulted  in  saving  Yicksburg.  For  if 
Sherman  had  been  defeated  between  Clinton  and  Jackson, 
Grant  could  not  have  invested  Yicksburg. 

As  it  was,  the  fall  of  Yicksburg  had  become  but  a  question 
of  time.  General  Johnston  was  convinced  of  the  impossibility 
of  collecting  a  sufficient  force  to  break  the  investment  of  the 
city,  should  it  be  completed.  He  appreciated  the  difficulty  of 
extricating  the  garrison.  It  was  with  this  foresight  that,  on 
learning  that  Pemberton  had  been  driven  from  the  Big  Black, 
he  ordered  the  evacuation  of  Yicksburg.  He  wrote :  "  If 
Haynes'  Bluff  be  untenable,  Yicksburg  is  of  no  value  and 
cannot  be  held.  If,  therefore,  you  are  invested  in  Yicksburg, 
you  must  ultimately  surrender.  Under  such  circumstances, 
instead  of  losing  both  troops  and  place,  you  must,  if  possible, 
save  the  troops.  If  it  is  not  too  late,  evacuate  Yicksburg  and 
its  dependencies,  and  march  to  the  northeast." 

It  was  a  grave  order.  It  commanded  the  surrender  of  valua 
ble  stores  and  munitions  of  war ;  the  surrender  of  the  Mississippi 
river ;  and  the  severance  of  the  Confederacy.  But  Johnston 
had  presented  to  his  mind  a  given  alternative :  that  of  the  loss 
of  Yicksburg,  and  that  of  the  loss  of  Yicksburg  an$  an  army 
of  twenty-five  thousand  men,  and  he  had  the  nerve  to  accept 
with  promptness  the  lesser  of  two  evils.  It  required  the  great 
est  moral  courage  to  come  to  such  a  conclusion ;  for  so  de 
luded  were  the  Confederate  people  as  to  the  safety  of  Yicks 
burg,  and  so  firmly  persuaded  were  they  that  Grant  was  a 
desperate  fool  "  who  would  butt  his  brains  out  against  the 
stockades  of  Yicksbnrg,"  that  had  this  order  of  Johnston  been 
known  at  the  time  it  would  have  produced  from  one  end  of 
the  Confederacy  to  the  other  an  outbreak  of  indignation,  and 
have  probably  made  him  the  victim  of  an  incorrigible  popular 
passion  and  ignorance. 

Pemberton  received  the  order  with  dismay ;  he  called  a  coun 
cil  of  war.  It  was  unanimous  for  its  rejection  ;  but  the  reas 
on  given  was  peculiar  and  but  little  creditable.  It  was  de 
cided  that  it  was  impossible  to  withdraw  the  army  with  such 


58  THE   THIED   YEAK    OF   THE    WAR. 

morale  and  material  as  to  be  of  future  service  to  the  Confeder 
acy  ;  and  this,  although  there  were  eight  thousand  fresh  troops 
in  Yicksburg.  Pemberton  replied  :  "  I  have  decided  to  hold 
Yicksburg  as  long  as  possible,  with  the  firm  hope  that  the 
Government  may  yet  be  able  to  assist  me  in  keeping  this  ob 
struction  to  the  enemy's  free  navigation  of  the  Mississippi 
river.  I  still  conceive  it  to  be  the  most  important  point  in  the 
Confederacy."  While  the  council  of  war  was  assembled,  the 
guns  of  the  enemy  opened  on  the  works. 


THE   THIRD   YEAR    OF   THE   WAR.  59 


CHAPTER  III. 

The  Defences  of  Vicksburg.— Pemberton's  Force.— His  Troops  Keinspirited.— A 
Memorable  Appeal. — Grant's  Assault  on  ,the  Works. — Confidence  of  the  Yankees. — 
Their  Repulse  and  Losses. — Commencement  of  Siege  Operations. — Confidence  in 
Richmond. — Johnston's  Secret  Anticipation  of  the  Fall  of  Vicksburg. — His  Alleged 
Inability  to  Avert  it. — Critical  Condition  of  the  Confederate  Armies  in  Numbers. — 
Secret  Correspondence  of  Richmond  Officials. — Mr.  Seddon's  Bait  of  Flattery. — Suf 
ferings  of  the  Garrison  of  Vicksburg. — Johnston's  Attempt  to  Extricate  them. — Pro 
posed  Diversion  in  the  Trans-Mississippi. — Its  Failure. — A  Message  from  Pemberton. 
A  Gleam  of  Hope. — An  Important  Dispatch  Miscarries. — The  Garrison  Unable  to 
Fight  Their  Way  Out.— But  Their  Condition  not  Extreme.— Pemberton's  Surrender 
on  the  Fourth  of  July. — Surprise  in  Richmond — Mendacity  of  the  Telegraph. — The 
Story  of  the  Rats  and  Mules. — Pemberton's  Statement  as  to  his  Supplies. — His  Ex 
planation  as  to  the  Day  of  Surrender. — The  last  Incident  of  Humiliation. — Behavior 
of  the  Vicksburg  Population. — A  Rival  of  "The  Beast." — Appearance  and  Manners 
of  the  City  under  Yankee  Rule. — Consequences  of  the  Fall  of  Vicksburg. — THE  YAN 
KEE  REOCCUPATION  OF  JACKSON. — Johnston's  Second  Evacuation. — The  Enemy's  Rav 
ages  in  Mississippi. — How  they  Compared  with  Lee's  Civilities  in  Pennsylvania. — 
THE  FALL  OF  PORT  HUDSON,  &c. — Enemy's  Capture  of  Yazoo  City. — THE  BATTLE 
OF  HELENA. — THE  TRANS-MISSISSIPPI. — Repulse  of  the  Confederates. — Abandonment 
of  Little  Rock. — The  Trials  and  Sufferings  of  the  Trans-Mississippi  Department. — 
Hindman's  Memorable  Rule. — Military  Autocracy. — The  Generous  and  Heroic  Spirit 
of  the  Trans-Mississippi. 

THE  line  of  defence  around  the  city  of  Yicksburg  consisted 
of  a  system  of  detached  works  (redans,  lunettes,  and  redoubts) 
on  the  prominent  and  commanding  points,  with  the  usual  pro 
file  of  raised  field  works,  connected,  in  most  cases,  by  rifle-pits. 
The  strength  of  the  city  towards  the  land  was  equally  as  strong 
as  on  the  river  side.  The  country  was  broken,  to  a  degree 
affording  excellent  defensive  positions.  In  addition  to  this, 
the  ravines  intervening  the  ridges  and  knolls,  which  the  Con 
federates  had  fortified,  were  covered  with  a  tangled  growth  of 
cane,  wild  grape,  &c.,  making  it  impossible  for  the  enemy  to 
move  his  troops  in  well-dressed  lines. 

To  man  the  entire  line  of  fortifications,  General  Pemberton 
was  able  to  bring  into  the  trenches  about  eighteen  thousand 
five  hundred  muskets ;  but  it  was  absolutely  necessary  to  keep 
a  reserve  always  ready  to  reinforce  any  point  heavily  threat 
ened.  It  became  indispensable,  therefore,  to  reduce  the  num 
ber  in  the  trenches  to  the  minimum  capable  of  holding  them 


60  THE   THIRD    YEAR    OF   THE    WAR. 

until  a  reserve  could  come  to  their  aid.  It  was  also  necessary 
that  the  reserve  should  be  composed  of  troops  among  the 
best  and  most  reliable.  Accordingly,  Bowen's  division  (about 
twenty-four  hundred)  and  some  other  forces  were  designated 
for  that  purpose,  reducing  the  forces  in  the  trenches  to  little 
over  fifteen  thousand  five  hundred  men. 

Fortunately,  the  army  of  Yicksburg  had  speedily  recovered 
from  its  demoralization,  reassured,  as  the  troops  were,  of  a 
prospect  of  Johnston's  co-operation,  and  inspired  by  a  remark 
able  appeal  from  Pernberton.  This  unfortunate  commander 
appeased  the  clamor  against  himself  by  an  apparently  noble 
candor  and  memorable  words  of  heroism.  He  said  that  it  had 
been  declared  that  he  would  sell  Yicksburg,  and  exhorted  his 
soldiers  to  witness  the  price  at  which  he  would  sell  it,  for  it 
would  not  be  less  than  his  own  life,  and  that  of  every  man  in 
his  command.  Those  words  deserve  to  be  commemorated  in 
relation  to  the  sequel. 

The  stirring  words  of  Pemberton  were  circulated  through 
the  Confederacy,  and  satisfied  the  public  that  either  Yicksburg 
was  safe,  or  that  the  catastrophe  would  be  glorious.  They 
called  to  mind  Ley  den  and  Genoa,  Londonderry  and  Saragossa, 
and  the  people  of  the  Confederacy  expected  that  a  name  not 
less  glorious  would  be  added  to  the  list  of  cities  made  immortal 
by  heroism,  endurance,  suffering,  and,  as  they  hoped,  triumph. 
Much  of  this  elation,  it  is  true,  was  from  ignorance  of  the  true 
situation  ;  but  even  the  intelligent  refused  to  entertain  a  sequel 
so  humiliating  and  disastrous  to  the  South  as  that  which  was 
to  ensue. 

The  troops  of  Grant  were  flushed  with  victory,  and  had  pro 
posed  to  finish  their  work  by  a  single  assault.  The  events  of 
the  19th,  20th,  and  21st  of  May,  wearied  those  who  imagined 
that  they  saw  in  their  grasp  the  palm  of  the  Mississippi.  So 
fully  assured  were  they  of  victory,  that  they  postponed  it  from 
day  to  day.  To  storm  the  works  was  to  take  Yicksburg,  in 
their  opinion,  and  when  it  was  known  on  the  morning  of  the 
21st,  that  at  ten  o'clock  next  morning  the  whole  line  of  Con 
federate  works  would  be  assaulted,  the  credulous  and  vain 
enemy  accounted  success  so  certain,  that  it  was  already  given 
to  the  wings  of  the  telegraph. 

On  the  22d,  the  fire  from  the  enemy's  artillery  and  sharp- 


THE   THIRD   YEAR   OF   THE   WAR.  61 

shooters  in  the  rear  was  heavy  and  incessant  until  noon,  when 
his  gunboats  opened  upon  the  city,  while  a  determined  assault 
was  made  along  Moore's,  Hebert's,  and  Lee's  lines.  At  about 
one  o'clock  p.  M.,  a  heavy  force  moved  out  to  the  assault  on  the 
lines  of  General  Lee,  making  a  gallant  charge.  They  were 
allowed  to  approach  unmolested  to  within  good  musket  range, 
when  every  available  gun  was  opened  upon  them  with  grape 
and  canister,  and  the  men,  rising  in  the  trenches,  poured  into 
their  ranks  volley  after  volley,  with  so  deadly  an  effect  that, 
leaving  the  ground  literally  covered  in  some  places  with  their 
dead  and  wounded,  they  precipitately  retreated.  The  angle 
of  one  of  our  redoubts  having  been  breached  by  their  artillery 
previous  to  the  assault,  when  the  repulse  occurred,  a  party  of 
about  sixty  of  the  enemy,  under  the  command  of  a  Lieutenant- 
colonel,  made  a  rush,  succeeded  in  effecting  a  lodgment  in  the 
ditch  at  the  foot  of  the  redoubt,  and  planted  two  colors  on  the 
parapet.  It  was  of  vital  importance  to  drive  them  out,  and, 
upon  a  call  for  volunteers  for  that  purpose,  two  companies  of 
Waul's  Texas  legion,  commanded  respectively  by  Captain 
Bradley  and  Lieutenant  Hogue,  accompanied  by  the  gallant 
and  chivalrous  Colonel  E.  W.  Pettus,  of  the  Twentieth  Ala 
bama  regiment,  musket  in  hand,  promptly  presented  them 
selves  for  the  hazardous  service.  The  preparations  were  quiet 
ly  and  quickly  made,  but  the  enemy  seemed  at  once  to  divine 
the  purpose,  and  opened  upon  the  angle  a  terrific  fire  of  shot, 
shell,  and  musketry.  Undaunted,  this  little  band,  its  chival 
rous  commander  at  its  head,  rushed  upon  the  work,  and,  in 
less  time  than  it  requires  to  describe  it,  it  and  the  flags  were 
in  our  possession.  Preparations  were  then  quickly  made  for 
the  use  of  our  hand-grenades,  when  the  enemy  in  the  ditch, 
being  informed  of  the  purpose,  immediately  surrendered. 

On  other  parts  of  our  lines  the  enemy  was  repulsed,  although 
he  succeeded  in  getting  a  few  men  into  our  exterior  ditches  at 
each  point  of  attack,  from  which  they  were,  however,  driven 
before  night.  Our  entire  loss  in  this  successful  day  was  com 
paratively  very  small,  and  might  be  counted  in  a  few  hundreds. 
So  accustomed  had  the  population  of  Vlcksburg  become  to  the 
fire  and  rage  of  battle,  that  the  circumstance  is  no  less  true  than 
curious  that  throughout  the  day  stores  in  the  city  were  open, 
and  women  and  children  walked  the  streets,  as  if  no  missiles 


62  THE   THIRD    YEAR   OF    THE   WAR. 

of  death  were  filling  the  air  and  bursting  and  scattering  the 
fragments  around.  There  is  no  reliable  account  of  the  enemy's 
loss  this  day  ;  but,  in  killed  and  wounded,  it  was  several  thou 
sands.  Two  thousand  had  fallen  in  front  of  General  Forney's 
lines  alone,  according  to  the  report  of  that  commander.  The 
dead  lay  before  our  works,  while  thousands  of  wounded  men 
were  carried  off  as  soon  as  they  fell. 

The  result  of  this  engagement  was  a  lesson  to  the  temerity 
of  the  enemy.  After  this  decided  repulse,  the  enemy  seemed 
to  have  abandoned  the  idea  of  taking  Yicksburg  by  assault, 
and  went  vigorously  at  work  to  thoroughly  invest  and  attack 
by  regular  approaches.  The  weakness  of  our  garrison  pre 
vented  anything  like  a  system  of  sallies,  but,  from  time  to 
time,  as  opportunities  offered,  and  the  enemy  effected  lodg 
ments  too  close  to  our  works,  they  were  made  with  spirit  and 
success.  But  these  were  unimportant  incidents.  The  patience 
of  Southern  soldiers — a  virtue  for  which  they  are  not  remark-  * 
able — was  now  to  be  tried  by  the  experiences  of  a  siege : 
exhausting  labors,  scant  rations,  a  melancholy  isolation,  and 
the  distress  of  being  entirely  cut  off  from  their  homes  and 
friends. 

The  siege  was  established  by  the  enemy  under  circumstances 
of  peculiar  and  extraordinary  advantage.  Although  Grant's 
attack  was  made  from  Grand  Gulf,  that  place  was  not  long  his 
base;  and,  when  he  gained  Haines^  Bluff  and  the  Yazoo,  all 
communication  with  it  was  abandoned.  He  was  enabled  to 
rely  on  Memphis  and  the  river  above  Yicksburg  for  food  and 
reinforcements  ;  his  communications  were  open  with  the  entire 
West ;  and  the  Northern  newspapers  urgently  demanded  that 
the  utmost  support  should  be  given  to  a  favorite  general,  and 
that  the  Trans-Mississippi  should  be  stripped  of  troops  to  supply 
him  with  reinforcements. 

But  the  South  still  entertained  hopes  of  the  safety  of  Yicks 
burg.  It  was  stated  in  Kichmond,  by  those  who  should  have 
been  well  informed,  that  the  garrison  numbered  considerably 
more  than  twenty  thousand  men,  and  was  provisioned  for  a 
siege  of  six  months.  Nearly  every  day  the  telegraph  had  some 
extravagance  to  tell  concerning  the  supreme  safety  of  Yicks 
burg  and  the  confidence  of  the  garrison.  The  heroic  promise 
of  Pemberton,  that  the  city  should  not  fall  until  the  last  man 


THE    THIRD    YEAR    OF   THE   WAR.  63 

had  fallen  in  the  last  ditch,  was  called  to  the  popular  remem 
brance.  The  confidence  of  the  South  was  swollen  even  to  in 
solence  by  these  causes  ;  and,  although  a  few  of  the  intelligent 
doubted  the  extravagant  assurances  of  the  safety  of  Yicksburg, 
the  people  at  large  received  them  with  an  unhesitating  and 
exultant  faith. 

The  prospect  of  Johnston's  relief  to  Yicksburg  was  a  delu 
sion  of  its  unhappy  garrison  and  of  an  ignorant  public.  In 
deed,  on  learning  of  the  Baker  creek  disaster,  Johnston  had 
given  up  Yicksburg  for  lost,  and  considered  that  Pemberton 
had  made  a  fatal  mistake  in  determining  to  be  besieged  in 
Yicksburg,  rather  than  maneuvering,  in  the  first  instance,  to 
prevent  a  siege.  The  fact  is,  that  at  no  time  after  the  disaster 
referred  to  did  General  Johnston  have  at  his  disposal  half  the 
troops  necessary  to  risk  an  assault  on  Grant.  After  the  evac 
uation  of  Jackson  he  had  retired  to  Canton,  and  the  force  he 
had  collected  there,  including  reinforcements  to  the  amount  of 
eight  thousand  men  from  Bragg's  army  in  Tennessee,  and 
above  six  thousand  from  Charleston,  scarcely  exceeded  twenty- 
four  thousand  men.  Grant's  army  was  estimated  at  sixty 
thousand  or  eighty  thousand  men,  and  drawn,  as  they  were, 
principally  from  the  Northwestern  States,  they  were  of  the 
best  material.  His  great  excess  of  force  was  being  daily  en 
larged  by  reinforcements,  while  the  Richmond  authorities  re 
fused  to  give  or  to  promise  more  troops  to  Johnston.  On  the 
5th  of  June,  Mr.  Seddon,  the  Confederate  Secretary  of  War, 
telegraphed  to  Johnston  :  "  You  must  rely  on  what  you  have, 
and  the  irregular  forces  Mississippi  can  afford." 

The  fact  is,  that  the  resources  of  the  Confederacy  were  at 
this  time  in  the  most  critical  condition.  In  Yirginia  we  were 
outnumbered  by  the  enemy  more  than  two  to  one ;  and  with 
reference  to  Bragg's  condition  in  Tennessee,  General  Johnston 
did  not  hesitate  to  declare  that,  to  take  from  him  a  force  suffi 
cient  to  oppose  Grant,  would  involve  the  yielding  of  that  State. 
He  advised  the  Richmond  authorities  that  it  was  for  them  to 
decide  between  Mississippi  and  Tennessee.  He  informed 
Pemberton  that  it  was  impossible  for  him  (Johnston)  with  the 
force  at  his  command  to  raise  the  siege  of  Yicksburg,  and  all 
that  he  could  attempt  was  to  extricate  the  garrison  by  a  simul 
taneous  attack  on  some  part  of  the  enemy's  lines. 


64.  THE   THIRD   YEAR   OF   THE   WAR.     . 

On  the  15th  of  June,  General  Johnston  communicated  to 
the  government  his  opinion  that,  without  some  great  blunder 
of  the  enemy,  we  could  not  hold  both  Mississippi  and  Tennes 
see,  and  that  he  considered  saving  Vicksburg  hopeless.  In 
deed  such  an  attempt  had  now  become  utterly  desperate. 
Grant  had  entrenched  his  position,  and  protected  it  by  power 
ful  artillery.  His  reinforcements  alone  equalled  Johnston's 
whole  force.  The  Big  Black  covered  him  from  attack,  and 
would  cut  off  our  retreat,  if  Johnston  had  been  defeated  in  his 
mad  enterprise  of  attack. 

And  now  ensued  a  series  of  extraordinary  communications 
from  Richmond,  remarkable  even  among  the  curiosities  of  the 
secret  correspondence  of  officials.  A  favorite  of  the  Richmond 
Administration  had  entangled  himself  in  a  hopeless  siege,  and 
the  proposition  was  to  be  recklessly  made  fo  General  Johnston 
to  effect  the  relief  of  the  favorite,  or  to  cover  his  disaster  by 
an  attempt,  which  he  (General  Johnston)  had  declared  would 
be  tantamount  to  the  sacrifice  of  himself  and  army,  and  which 
all  the  circumstances  of  the  situation  plainly  denounced  as 
hopeless.  The  authorities  essayed  the  dictatorial  style,  and  de 
clared  that  the  aim  justified  "  any  risk  and  all  probable  con 
sequences."  General  Johnston  could  not  be  convinced.  They 
attempted  the  persuasions  of  flattery :  "  The  eyes  and  the 
hopes  of  the  whole  Confederacy  are  upon  you,"  wrote  Mr.  Sed- 
don  to  Johnston,  "  with  the  full  confidence  that  you  will  act." 
General  Johnston  could  not  be  cajoled.  The  Richmond  au 
thorities  were  left  to  await  the  development  of  that  for  which 
they  themselves  were  most  responsible. 

The  situation  revealed  in  this  correspondence  was  a  close 
secret  to  the  public.  It  was  known  to  Pemberton,  but  most 
studiously  kept  from  his  troops,  who,  whenever  a  courier 
reached  Yicksburg,  imagined  certain  tidings  of  Johnston's 
approach.  At  times,  the  unhappy  men  listened  for  the  sound 
of  his  guns.  The  hardships  of  the  siege  were  telling  upon 
them.  The  enemy  were  mining  at  different  points,  and  it  re 
quired  the  active  and  constant  attention  of  our  engineers  to 
repair  at  night  the  damage  inflicted  upon  our  works  during 
the  day,  and  to  meet  his  different  mines  by  countermining. 
The  same  men  were  constantly  in  the  trenches.  The  enemy 
bombarded  day  and  night  from  seven  mortars  on  the  opposite 


THE   THIRD    YEAR    OF    THE    WAR.  65 

side  of  the  peninsula.  He  also  kept  up  a  constant  fire  on  our 
lines  by  artillery  and  sharpshooters.  Many  officers  and  men 
were  lost  by  this  fire.  Among  the  first,  was  the  brave  Briga 
dier-general  Green,  of  Missouri,  who  was  shot  in  the  neck  by 
a  minie  ball.  His  wish  was  gratified — "he  lived  not  to  see 
Yicksburg  fall." 

But  although  General  Johnston  despaired  of  the  ability  of 
his  ai'tny  to  save  Yicksburg,  he  was  busy  with  efforts  to  extri 
cate  the  garrison  or  to  cut  the  enemy's  communications,  hop 
ing,  from  day  to  day,  there  might  possibly  be  some  new  de 
velopment  of  the  situation.  On  arriving  in  Mississippi  he  had 
informed  General  Kirby  Smith,  commanding  the  forces  west 
of  the  Mississippi  river,  of  the  condition  of  Yicksburg  and 
Port  Hudson,  and  requested  his  aid  and  co-operation.  Gen 
eral  Smith  did  send  troops  to  give  all  possible  aid  to  Yicks 
burg.  General  Taylor  was  sent  with  eight  thousand  men  to 
co-operate  from  the  west  bank  of  the  Mississippi,  to  throw  in 
supplies  and  to  cross  with  his  force  if  expedient  and  practi 
cable.  On  the  27th  of  June-  General  Johnston  telegraphed 
Pemberton  that  these  troops  "had  been  mismanaged,  and  had 
fallen  back  to  Delhi."  All  prospect  of  relief  from  this  quarter 
was  thus  terminated. 

A  few  days  before  this  disappointment  Pemberton  had  com 
municated  to  Johnston  the  suggestion,  that  he  (Johnston) 
should  make  to  Grant  propositions  to  pass  the  army  of  Yicks 
burg  out  with  all  its  arms  and  equipages.  He  renewed  the 
hope,  however,  of  his  being  able,  by  force  of  arms,  to  act  with 
Johnston,  and  expressed  the  opinion  that  he  could  hold  out  for 
fifteen  days  longer.  Johnston  was  reassured  by  this  spirit  of 
determination.  He  still  had  some  hopes  of  the  co-operation 
of  Kirby  Smith.  He  replied  to  Peinberton,  that  something 
might  yet  ~be  done  to  save  Vicksburg,  and  to  postpone  the 
modes  suggested  of  merely  extricating  the  garrison. 

This  despatch  never  reached  Yicksburg.  "  Had  I  received," 
said  General  Pemberton,  "  General  Johnston's  despatch  of  the 
27th  of  June,  in  which  he  encouraged  the  hope  that  both 
Yicksburg  and  the  garrison  might  be  saved,  I  would  have 
lived  upon  an  ounce  a  clay,  and  have  continued  to  meet  the 
assaults  of  all  Grant's  army,  rather  than  have  surrendered 
the  city  until  General  Johnston  had  realized  or  relinquished 

5 


THE   TH1KD    YEAR   OF   THE    WAR. 


that  hope ;  but  I  did  not  receive  his  despatch  until  the 
20th  day  of  August,  in  Gainesville,  Alabama,  nor  had  I  the 
most  remote  idea  that  such  an  opinion  was  entertained  by 
General  Johnston ;  he  had  for  some  weeks  ignored  its  possi 
bility." 

Whatever  may  be  the  merit  of  this  declaration,  Johnston's 
reassurance  was  too  late.  The  very  day  it  was  penned,  Pem- 
berton  liad  proposed  a  capitulation. 

Forty-five  days  of  incessant  duty,  with  short  rations,  had  had 
a  marked  effect  upon  the  troops  of  Vicksburg.  The  trials  of  the 
siege  were  extraordinary.  The  men  had  been  exposed  to  burn 
ing  suns,  drenching  rains,  damp  fogs,  and  heavy  dews,  and  had 
never  had,  by  day  or  by  night,  the  slightest  relief.  The  extent 
of  our  works  required  every  available  man  in  the  trenches,  and 
even  then  they  were,  in  many  places,  insufficiently  manned. 
It  was  not  possible  to  relieve  any  portion  of  the  line  for  a  sin 
gle  hour.  Confined  to  the  narrow  limits  of  a  trench,  with 
their  limbs  cramped  and  swollen,  without  exercise,  constantly 
exposed  to  a  murderous  storm  of  shot  and  shell,  while  the 
enemy's  unerring  sharpshooters  stood  ready  to  pick  off  every 
man  visible  above  the  parapet,  the  troops  had  suffered  many 
combinations  of  hardship  which  had  told  upon  their  health  and 
spirits.  It  is  undoubtedly  true,  that  in  the  condition  in  which 
the  troops  were,  they  would  not  have  been  able  to  cut  their 
way  through  the  enemy's  lines,  without  the  abandonment  of  a 
large  number  of  sick,  and  the  loss  of,  probably,  half  their  ef 
fective  strength.  Such  an  enterprise  was  discouraged  by  all 
the  division  commanders.  But  however  unequal  the  condition 
of  the  troops  to  an  enterprise  of  such  vigor  and  hardihood,  it 
is  certain  that  it  was  yet  equal  to  sustain  for  many  days  longer 
the  fatigues  and  hardships  of  a  siege.  The  condition  of  the 
garrison  was  certainly  not  as  extreme  as  that  which  Pemberton 
had  heroically  prefigured  as  the  alternative  of  surrender  ;  and 
it  must  be  said,  in  the  severe  interest  of  truth,  that  it  holds  no 
honorable  comparison  with  the  amount  of  privation  and  suffer 
ing  borne  in  other  sieges  recorded  in  history. 

On  the  3d  of  July,  Pemberton  proposed  terms  of  capitula 
tion  for  the  morrow,  to  "  save  the  further  effusion  of  blood," 
"  feeling  himself  fully  able  to  maintain  his  position  for  a  yet 
indefinite  period."  There  was  but  little  dispute  about  terms  : 


THE    THIRD    YEAR    OF   THE   WAR.  67 

the  parole  of  the  garrison,  Grant's  persistent  refusal  to  make 
any  stipulation  with  regard  to  the  treatment  of  citizens,  and 
the  surrender  of  this  latter  point  by  Pemberton. 

On  the  morning  of  Saturday,  the  Fourth  of  July,  the  anni 
versary  of  American  Independence,  the  troops  of  Yicksburg 
marched  from  the  lines  of  entrenchments  they  had  defended 
and  held  for  nearly  two  months,  and,  after  stacking  their  arms 
and  lowering  their  standards  which  had  proudly  floated  upon 
many  a  battle-field,  returned  inside  of  the  works,  prisoners  of 
war  to  a  detested  and  exultant  foe.  At  the  hour  of  noon  the 
Yankee  flag  was  raised  over  the  Court-house  amid  the  shouts 
and  cheers  of  Grant's  troops.  Demoralized  as  was  Pember- 
ton's  army,  there  were  yet  those  whose  hearts  throbbed  or  eyes 
filled  with  tears  as  they  saw  the  hated  ensign  floating  over  a 
city  which  the  Confederacy  had  boasted  to  be  impregnable, 
and  which  had  at  last  been  surrenderred  to  signalize  an  Amer 
ican  holiday. 

The  public  confidence  of  the  South  with  regard  to  the  safety 
of  Yicksburg  had  been  abused  by  the  silly  mendacities  of  the 
telegraph,  which,  to  the  last,  reported  the  garrison  in  supreme 
spirits  and  the  enemy  in  woful  plight.  Under  these  circum 
stances  the  surprise  and  consternation  of  the  people  of  the 
South  may  be  imagined,  when,  without  the  least  premonition, 
the  announcement  came  that  the  select  anniversary  of  the 
Fourth  of  July  had  been  signalized  by  the  capitulation  of 
Yicksburg,  witho/it  a  fight :  the  surrender  of  twenty  odd 
thousand  troops  as  prisoners;  and  the  abandonment  to  the 
Yankees  of  one  of  the  greatest  prizes  of  artillery  that  had  yet 
been  made  in  the  war.  The  news  fell  upon  Richmond  like  a 
thunder-clap  from  clear  skies.  It  was  at  first  denounced  as  an 
invention  of  speculators  in  sugar.  The  people  were  unwilling 
to  reconcile  themselves  to  a  misfortune  so  unexpected  in  its 
announcement,  and  so  monstrous  in  its  particulars. 

The  authorities  of  Richmond  maintained  a  sullen  silence. 
But  the  truth,  at  last,  came  out  stark  and  unwelcome.  We 
had  surrendered  to  the  enemy  a  force  of  more  than  twenty- 
three  thousand  men,  with  three  major-generals,  and  nine 
brigadiers ;  upwards  of  ninety  pieces  of  artillery,  and  about 
forty  thousand  small  arms,  large  numbers  of  the  latter  having 
been  taken  from  the  enemy  during  the  siege. 


63  THE   THIKD    YEAK   OF   THE    WAR. 

The  statement  that  the  garrison  of  Yicksburg  was  surren- 
dered  on  account  of  an  inexorable  distress,  in  which  the  sol 
diers  had  to  feed  on  mules,  with  the  occasional  luxury  of  rats, 
is  either  to  be  taken  as  a  designing  falsehood,  or  as  the  crudi 
ties  of  that  foolish  newspaper  romance  so  common  in  the  war. 
In  neither  case  does  it  merit  refutation.  A  citizen  of  Yicks 
burg  declares  that  the  only  foundation  for  the  rat  story  is  that 
a  pie  spiced  with  this  vermin  was  served  up  in  some  of  the 
officers'  messes  as  a  practical  joke,  and  that  for  days  after  the 
surrender  he  himself  had  dined  on  excellent  bacon  from  Pem- 
berton's  stores.  In  his  official  report  Pemberton  declares  that 
he  had  at  the  time  of  the  surrender  of  Yicksburg  about 
40,000  pounds  of  pork  and  bacon,  which  had  been  reserved  for 
the  subsistance  of  his  troops  in  the  event  of  attempting  to  cut 
his  way  out  of  the  city.  Also  51,241  pounds  of  rice,  5,000 
bushels  of  peas,  112,234  pounds  of  sugar,  3^240  pounds  of 
soap,  527  pounds  of  tallow  candles,  27  pounds  of  star  candles, 
and  428,000  pounds  of  salt.* 

There  appears,  then,  to  have  been  no  immediate  general  oc 
casion  for  the  surrender  of  Yicksburg  other  than  Pemberton's 
desire  "  to  save  the  further  effusion  of  blood."  The  explana 
tion  of  his  motives  for  selecting  the  Fourth  of  July  as  the  day 
of  surrender  implies  a  singular  humiliation  of  the  Confederacy  ; 
as  he  was  willing  to  give  this  dramatic  gratification  to  the 
vanity  of  tlxe  enemy  in  the  hope  of  thus  conciliating  the  ambi 
tion  of  Grant,  and  soliciting  the  generosity  of  the  Yankees. 
He  says :  "  If  it  should  be  asked  why  the  Fourth  of  July  was 

*  But  it  must  be  stated  that  Pemberton's  supplies  of  Vicksburg,  which  he 
had  a  year  to  provide,  were  criminally  scant ;  and  that  as  the  failure  of  sup 
plies  would  in  all  probability  have  decided  the  fate  of  Vicksburg,  had  he  not 
anticipated  it  by  a  surrender,  he  cannot  be  acquitted  of  blame  in  this  particu 
lar.  He  declined  to  provision  Vicksburg  in  prospect  of  a  siege.  When  one  of 
the  Confederate  generals,  from  Mississippi,  pointed  out  to  him  vast  supplies  in 
certain,  counties  of  the  State  accessible  to  his  garrison,  he  dismissed  the  advice 
with  a  haughtiness  that  almost  amounted  to  personal  insult. 

As  proof  of  the  abundance  of  the  country  around  Vicksburg,  we  have  Grant's 
official  report  of  his  Mississippi  campaign,  in  which  he  states  that,  with  a  view 
of  rapid  movement  and  surprise,  having  calculated  that  twenty  days  would 
place  him  before  Vicksburg,  he  permitted  his  troops  to  take  only  four  days' 
provisions,  trusting  to  the  country  for  the  other  sixteen  days'  supply,  and,  in 
fact,  supplied  his  army  (50,000  men),  from  the  country  lying  about  the  line  oi 
his  march. 


THE    THIRD    YEAR    OF   THE    WAR.  69 

selected  as  the  day  for  the  surrender,  the  answer  is  obvious  ;  I 
believed  that,  upon  that  day,  I  should  obtain  better  terms. 
Well  aware  of  the  vanity  of  our  foes,  I  knew  they  would  attach 
vast  importance  to  the  entrance,  on  the  Fourth  of  July,  into 
the  stronghold  of  the  great  river,  and  that,  to  gratify  their  na 
tional  vanity,  they  would  yield  then  what  could  not  be  ex 
torted  from  them  at  any  other  time."  Such  an  incident  of 
humiliation  was  alone  wanting  to  complete  the  disaster  and 
shame  of  Yicksburg. 

What  the  Confederacy  had  proudly  entitled  its  "heroic 
city,"  was  now  destined  to  the  experience  of  Yankee  despot 
ism,  and,  what  was  worse,  to  the  shame  of  those  exhibitions  of 
cowardly  submission  which  suited  the  interests  of  those  who 
were  left  to  herd  with  their  country's  destroyers.  The  citizens 
of  Yicksburg  had  suffered  little  more  than  mere  inconvenience 
from  the  siege.  There  had  been  but  little  loss  of  life  among 
them  in  the  bombardment.  The  city  was  filled  with  groups 
of  caves  on  every  hill-side.  In  these  caves  the  women  and 
children  were  sheltered  during  the  nights,  and  occasionally  in 
the  daytime  when  the  firing  was  very  severe.  The  excava 
tions  branched  out  in  various  directions  after  passing  the  en 
trance.  They  were  not  very  desirable  bed-chambers,  but  they 
seemed  to  have  answered  a  very  good  purpose.  In  one  or  two 
instances  shells  entered  them,  and  two  women  and  a  number 
of  children  were  thus  killed  during  the  siege. 

On  the  same  day  the  Yankees  entered  Yicksburg,  several 
places  of  business  were  opened.  Signs  were  hoisted  on  express 
offices,  book  and  fruit  stores,  informing  the  new  customers  that 
the  proprietors  were  in  and  ready  to  serve  them.  A  well- 
known  citizen  of  Yicksburg  took  the  oath  of  allegiance  and 
accommodated  General  Grant  with  headquarters  at  his  resi 
dence.  The  Jewish  portion  of  the  population,  composed  princi 
pally  of  Germans,  with  but  one  honorable  exception,  went  for 
ward  and  took  the  oath  of  allegiance  to  the  United  States. 

These  tokens  of  submission  were  rewarded  in  the  enemy's 
usual  way.  At  first  the  citizens  were  placed  under  very  little 
restraint.  They  were  permitted  to  come  in  and  go  out  of  the 
lines  almost  at  pleasure.  In  a  few  days,  however,  the  reins 
were  tightened.  Yicksburg  found  a  second  edition  of  Beast 
Butler  in  General  Osterhaus,  a  tawny  Dutchman,  who  peremp- 


70  THE    THIRD   YEAR    OF   THE    WAR. 

torily  stopped  the  ingress  and  egress  of  the  people;  forbid 
citizens  from  purchasing  provisions  without  first  registering 
their  names;  re-enacted  much  of  the  ingenious  despotism  of 
New  Orleans;  and  declared  that  the  height  of  his  ambition 
was  to  get  our  people  to  hate  and  abhor  him. 

A  Mississippi  paper  declared  that  it  had  no  word  of  excuse 
or  charity  for  the  men  who  had  remained  in  Yicksburg  under 
the  enemy's  flag.  To  quote  from  their  own  slang  dialect,  "  the 
Confederacy  was  about  gone  up,  and  there  was  no  use  in  fol 
lowing  its  fortunes  any  further."  But  it  repeated  the  charac 
teristic  story  of  the  conquered  cities  of  the  South.  The  spirit 
of  the  women  of  Yicksburg  was  unbroken ;  and  amid  all  its 
shameful  spectacles  of  subserviency,  female  courage  alone  re 
deemed  the  sad  story  of  a  conquered  and  emasculated  city. 
There  was  but  a  single  exception  to  the  compliment;  and  she 
a  Northern  school-teacher  who  was  first  to  sing  "  the  Bonnie 
Blue  Flag"  in  Yicksburg,  at  the  commencement  of  the  war,  to 
raise  the  means  to  clothe  our  soldiers.  She  forgot  the  "  hope- 
crowned  past,"  and  attended  a  social  gathering  at  MacPher- 
son's  headquarters,  where  during  the  evening  a  sword  was 
presented  "  in  honor  of  the  surrender  of  Yicksburg." 

The  city  had  been  accounted  one  of  the  most  beautiful  of  the 
South,  of  commanding  situation,  and  adorned  with  a  profusion 
of  shrubbery  ;  but  the  rain  of  shot  and  shell  had  sadly  marred 
its  beauty.  But  few  buildings  were  entirely  demolished  ;  yet 
there  was  scarcely  a  house  in  Yicksburg  that  remained  unscath 
ed  ;  in  all  of  them  were  frightful  looking  holes  in  the  walls  and 
floors.  The  streets  had  been  ploughed  up  by  shells.  In  walk 
ing  along  the  pavement  one  had  to  exercise  care  not  to  tumble 
into  a  pit  dug  by  a  projectile  from  a  thirteen-inch  mortar,  or  from 
a  Parrott  gun.  The  yards,  gardens,  and  open  lots  were  cut  up 
with  shot  holes.  Nearly  every  gate  in  the  city  was  crowned 
with  unexploded  thirteen-inch  shells  placed  a-top  of  each  post, 
and  the  porches  and  piazzas  were  adorned  with  curious  collec 
tions  of  shot  and  shell  that  had  fallen  within  the  inclosures. 
Everywhere  were  to  be  found  evidences  of  the  fiery  ordeal 
through  which  the  city  had  passed. 

It  is  impossible  to  recount  with  precision  the  various  inter 
ests  involved  in  the  fate  of  Yicksburg.  It  compelled,  as  its 
necessary  consequence,  the  surrender  of  other  posts  on  the 


THE   THIRD   YEAR   OF   THE   WAR.  71 

Mississippi,  and  cut  the  Confederacy  in  twain.  It  neutralized 
successes  in  Lower  Louisiana,  to  which  we  shall  presently  re 
fer.  Its  defence  had  involved  exposure  and  weakness  in  other 
quarters.  It  had  about  stripped  Charleston  of  troops ;  it  had 
taken  many  thousand  men  from  Bragg's  army ;  and  it  had 
made  such  requisitions  on  his  force  for  the  newly  organized 
lines  in  Mississippi,  that  that  general  was  compelled  or  in 
duced,  wisely  or  unwisely,  to  fall  back  from*  Tullahoina,  to 
give  up  the  country  on  the  Memphis  and  Charleston  railroad, 
and  practically  to  abandon  the  defence  of  Middle  Tennessee. 

The  fall  of  Yicksburg  was  followed  by  the  enemy's  re-occupa 
tion  of  Jackson,  the  capitulation  of  Port  Hudson,  the  evacua 
tion  of  Yazoo  city,  and  important  events  in  Arkansas,  which 
resulted  in  the  retreat  of  our  army  from  Little  Rock  and  the 
surrender  to  the  enemy  of  the  important  valley  in  which  it  is 
situated.  To  these  events  we  must  now  direct  the  attention  of 
the  reader. 


THE    YANKEE   RE-OCCUPATION    OF   JACKSON. 

General  Grant  advanced  his  forces  on  Jackson,  to  which 
point  Johnston  retreated  so  soon  as  he  learned  the  Yicksburg 
disaster.  His  policy  was  to  march  rapidly  to  the  capture  or 
discomfiture  of  General  Johnston's  army.  On  the  evening  of 
the  9th  of  July,  his  advance  drove  in  our  outer  line  of  pickets. 
The  troops  employed  in  this  expedition  were  Sherman's  army 
corps,  the  Fifteenth,  commanded  by  General  Steele ;  the  Thir 
teenth  army  corps,  General  Ord,  commanding,  with  Lauman's 
division  of  Sixteenth  army  corps  attached,  a  portion  of  the 
Sixteenth  and  Ninth  army  corps,  commanded  by  General  Par 
ker,  and  McArthur's  division  of  General  McPherson's  corps — 
in  all  about  four  army  corps. 

The  works  thrown  up  for  the  defence  of  Jackson  consisted 
of  a  line  of  rifle-pits,  prepared  at  intervals  for  artillery.  These 
extended  from  a  point  north  of  the  town,  a  little  east  of  the 
Canton  road,  to  a  point  south  of  the  town,  within  a  short  dis 
tance  of  Pearl  river,  and  covered  most  of  the  approaches  west 
of  the  river;  but  were  badly  located  and  constructed,  pre 
senting  but  a  slight  obstacle  to  a  vigorous  assault. 

The  troops  promptly  took  their  assigned  positions  in  the 


72  THE    THIRD   YEAR   OF   THE   WAK. 

intrencliments  on  the  appearance  of  the  enemy,  in  expectation 
of  immediate  assault:  Major-general  Loring  occupying  the 
right;  Major-general  Walker  the  right  of  the  centre;  Major- 
general  French  the  left  of  the  centre,  and  Major-general  Breck- 
iuridge  the  left.  The  cavalry,  under  Brigadier-general  Jackson, 
was  ordered  to  observe  and  guard  the  fords  of  Pearl  river, 
above  and  below  the  town. 

But  the  en£my,  ins.tead  of  attacking,  as  soon  as  he  ar 
rived,  commenced  intrenching  and  constructing  batteries.  On 
the  10th,  there  was  spirited  skirmishing  with  slight  cannonad 
ing,  continuing  throughout  the  day.  This  was  kept  up  with 
varying  intensity.  Hills  commanding  and  encircling  the 
town,  within  easy  cannon  range,  offered  favorable  sites  for 
batteries.  A  cross-fire  of  shot  and  shell  reached  all  parts  of 
the  town,  showing  the  position  to  be  entirely  untenable  against 
a  powerful  artillery. 

On  the  12th,  besides  the  usual  skirmishing,  there  was  a 
heavy  cannonade  from  the  batteries  near  the  Canton  and 
son th  of  the  Clinton  roads.  The  missiles  reached  all  parts  of 
the  town.  An  assault,  though  not  a  vigorous  one,  was  also 
made  on  Major-general  Breckinridge's  line.  It  was  quickly 
repelled,  however,  principally  by  the  direct  fire  of  Cobb's  and 
Slocumb's  batteries,  and  a  flank  attack  of  the  skirmishers  of  the 
First,  Third  and  Fourth  Florida  and  Forty-seventh  Georgia 
regiments.  The  enemy's  loss  in  killed,  wounded,  and  prison 
ers,  was  at  least  five  hundred.* 

On  the  16th,  General  Johnston  obtained  information  that  a 
large  train  from  Yicksburg,  loaded  with  ammunition,  was  near 
the  enemy's  camp.  This,  and  the  condition  of  the  enemy's 
batteries,  made  it  probable  that  Sherman  would  the  next  day 
concentrate  upon  Jackson  the  fire  of  near  two  hundred  guns. 

*  During  the  heavy  bombardment  Colonel  Withers  was  killed  by  the  ex 
plosion  of  a  shell  near  his  own  residence.  He  had  just  returned  from  the  front 
when  he  was  killed.  He  was  buried  at  night  by  his  faithful  slave,  who  was 
fired  upon  by  the  enemy  during  the  interment.  This  boy's  conduct  to  his  de 
ceased  master  was  a  rebuke  to  the  enemy.  In  the  face  of  the  enemy's  position, 
at  night,  within  easy  range  of  the  enemy's  sharpshooters,  he,  with  the  assist 
ance  of  two  Confederate  officers,  and  by  the  flickering  light  of  a  lamp — which 
was  shot  out  of  his  hand  while  he  was  performing  his  sacred  duty — carried 
the  body  of  his  dead  master  and  interred  it  with  as  much  affection  and  tender 
care  as  if  it  were  his  own  child. 


THE    THIRD    YEAR   OF   THE    WAR.  73 

The  evacuation  of  Jackson  was  determined  on  and  effected  on 
the  night  of  the  16th.  The  evacuation  was  not  discovered  by  the 
enemy  until  the  next  day ;  and  Johnston  retired  by  easy  march 
es  to  Morton,  distant  about  thirty-five  miles  from  Jackson. 

When  Sherman's  troops  entered  Jackson,  exasperated  by  the 
losses  which  their  ranks  had  sustained,  they  commenced  a  de 
struction  of  the  houses  by  fire,  which  was  kept  up  until  there 
was  but  little  left  of  the  town  but  ashes.  Jackson  has  been  an 
ill-fated  place.  When  it  was  captured  before  there  was  a 
great  destruction.  Now,  where  was  but  lately  a  thriving  and 
pretentious  town  of  between  four  and  five  thousand  inhabitants, 
with  a  State-house,  lunatic  asylum,  and  many  other  public 
buildings,  there  was  a  heap  of  ruins. 

The  country  between  Vicksburg  and  Jackson  was  com 
pletely  devastated.  A  "letter  from  our  lines  in  Mississippi  thus 
described  the  outrages  there  : 

"  I  thought  the  condition  of  northern  Mississippi  and  the 
country  around  my  own  home  in  Memphis  deplorable.  There 
robberies  were  committed,  houses  were  burned,  and  occasion 
ally  a  helpless  man  or  woman  was  murdered ;  but  here, 
around  Jackson  and  Vicksburg,  there  are  no  terms  used  in  all 
the  calendar  of  crimes  which  could  convey  any  adequate  con 
ception  of  the  revolting  enormities  perpetrated  by  our  foes. 
Women  have  beeh  robbed  of  their  jewelry  and  wearing 
apparel — stripped  almost  to  nakedness  in  the  presence  of  jeer 
ing  Dutch  ;  ear-rings  have  been  torn  from  their  ears,  and  rings 
from  bleeding  fingers.  Every  house  has  been  pillaged,  and 
thousands  burned.  The  whole  country  between  the  Big  Black 
and  the  Mississippi,  and  all  that  district  through  which  Grant's 
army  passed,  is  one  endless  scene  of  desolation.  This  is  not 
the  worst ;  robbery  and  murder  are  surely  bad  enough,  but 
worse  than  all  this,  women  have  been  subjected  to  enormities 
worse  than  death. 

"  Negroes,  men  and  women,  who  can  leave  their  homes,  are 
forced  or  enticed  away.  The  children  alone  are  left.  Barns 
and  all  descriptions  of  farm-houses  have  been  burned.  All 
supplies,  bacon  and  flour,  are  seized  for  the  use  of  the  invad 
ing  army,  and  the  wretched  inhabitants  left  to  starve.  The 
roads,  along  which  Grant's  army  has  moved,  are  strewn  with 
all  descriptions  of  furniture,  wearing  apparel,  and  private 


74:  THE    THIRD    YEAR    OF   THE    WAR. 

property.  In  many  instances  husbands  have  been  arrested, 
and  threatened  with  instant  death  by  the  hangman's  rope,  in 
order  to  make  their  wives  reveal  the  place  of  concealment  of 
their  valuable  effects.  The  poor  women  are  made  to  ransom 
their  sons,  daughters,  and  husbands.  The  worst  slaves  are 
selected  to  insult,  taunt,  and  revile  their  masters,  and  the 
wives  and  daughters  of  their  masters." 

We  must  remember  that  these  enormities  were  contemporary 
with  Lee's  civilities  in  Pennsylvania.  It  was  bad  enough  for 
that  commander  to  make  such  return  for  what  he  had  experi 
enced  in  Virginia ;  but  the  enemy's  warfare  in  distant  and 
remote  parts  of  the  Confederacy  exceeded  in  atrocity  what  had 
been  known  on  the  lines  of  the  Potomac.  It  appears  to  have 
been  aggravated  in  proportion  to  its  distance  from  the  centres 
of  intelligence.  In  the  Southwest  it«was  not  denied  that  the 
policy  of  the  enemy  was  the  destruction  of  all  resources  of  live 
lihood,  but  on  the  border  (in  Missouri,  for  instance),  the  enemy 
was  bold  enough  to  announce  the  policy  of  the  extermination 
of  the  inhabitants.*  But  to  this  subject  we  shall  have  occa 
sion  to  refer  again. 

THE   FALL    OF   PORT   HUDSON,    ETC. 

The  fate  of  Port  Hudson  was  necessarily  ^involved  in  that  of 
Yicksburg.  But  it  did  not  fall  until  after  a  prolonged  and 
gallant  resistance,  the  facts  of  which  may  be  briefly  commemo 
rated.  On  the  morning  of  the  22d  of  May,  the  enemy,  under 

*  For  instance,  a  Missouri  paper,  speaking  of  the  policy  of  General  Ewing 
(the  Yankee  general  in  command  of  that  department),  towards  the  secession 
ists  of  that  country,  says : 

"  General  Ewing's  policy  towards  these  wretches  from  the  very  start  has 
been  simply  extermination — nothing  less.  His  orders  have  been  to  take  no 
prisoners  from  them,  and  the  orders  have  been  strictly  obeyed." 

Again,  the  St.  Louis  Democrat,  an  abolition  sheet,  says,  in  referring  to  the 
troubles  on  the  Missouri  border  : 

"  The  Seventh  Missouri  State  militia  are  burning  all  the  houses  of  rebel 
sympathizers  all  along  the  border.  A  fearful  state  of  things  exists  in  all  the 
border  counties,  and  general  devastation  is  observable." 

One  of  these  ruffians,  a  Yankee  colonel,  declared  that  he  would  hang  every 
man  without  "  protection  p'apers."  He  said  that  "  the  whole  duty"  of  his  regi 
ment  (the  Fifteenth)  would  be  "  to  kill  rebels  ;"  and  closed  with  the  following 
atrocious  boast :  "  We  carry  the  flag ;  kill  with  the  sabre ;  and  hang  with  the 
gallows." 


THE    THIRD   TEAR   OF   THE   WAK.  75 

command  of  General  Banks,  pushed  his  infantry  forward 
within  a  mile  of  our  breastworks.  Having  taken  his  position 
for  the  investment  of  our  works,  he  advanced  with  his  whole 
force  against  the  breastworks,  directing  his  main  attack  against 
the  left,  commanded  by  Colonel  Steadman.  Vigorous  assaults, 
were  also  made  against  the  extreme  left  of  Colonel  Miles  and 
General  Beale,  the  former  of  whom  commanded  on  the  centre, 
the  latter  on  the  right.  On  the  left  the  attack  was  made  by  a 
brigade  of  negroes,  composing  about  three  regiments,  together 
with  the  same  force  of  white  Yankees,  across  a  bridge  which 
had  been  built  over  Sandy  creek.  About  five  hundred  negroes 
in  front  advanced  at  double-quick  within  one  hundred  and  fifty 
yards  of  the  works,  when  the  artillery  on  the  river  bluff,  and 
two  light  pieces  on  our  left,  opened  upon  them,  and  at  the 
same  time  they  were  received  with  volleys  of  musketry.  The 
negroes  fled  every  way  in  perfect  confusion,  and,  according  to 
the  enemy's  report,  six  hundred  of  them  perished.  The  repulse 
on  Miles'  left  was  decisive. 

On  the  13th  of  June  a  communication  was  received  from 
General  Banks,  demanding  the  unconditional  surrender  of  the 
post.  He  complimented  the  garrison  in  high  terms  for  their 
endurance.  He  stated  that  his  artillery  was  equal  to  any  in 
extent  and  efficiency  ;  that  his  men  outnumbered  ours  five  to 
one;  and  that  he  demanded  the  surrender  in  the  name  of 
humanity,  to  prevent  a  useless  sacrifice  of  life.  General  Gard 
ner  replied  that  his  duty  required  him  to  defend  the  post,  and 
he  must  refuse  to  entertain  any  such  proposition. 

On  the  morning  of  the  14th,  just  before  day,  the  fleet  and 
all  the  land  batteries,  which  the  enemy  had  succeeded  in 
erecting  at  one  hundred  to  three  hundred  yards  from  our 
breastworks,  opened  fire  at  the  same  time.  About  daylight, 
under  cover  of  the  smoke,  the  enemy  advanced  along  the 
whole  line,  and  in  many  places  approached  within  ten  feet  of 
our  works.  Our  brave  soldiers  were  wide-awake,  and,  opening 
upon  them,  drove  them  back  in  confusion,  a  great  number  of 
them  being  left  dead  in  the  ditches.  One  entire  division  and 
a  brigade  were  ordered  to  charge  the  position  of  the  First  Mis 
sissippi  and  the  Ninth  Alabama,  and  by  the  mere  physical 
pressure  of  numbers  some  of  them  got  within  the  works,  but 
all  these  were  immediately  killed.  After  a  sharp  contest  of  two 


70  THE    THIRD    YEAR    OF    THE    WAR. 

hours,  the  enemy  were  everywhere  repulsed,  and  withdrawn  to 
their  old  lines. 

During  the  remainder  of  the  month  of  June  there  was  heavy 
skirmishing  daily,  with  constant  firing  night  and  day  from  the 
gun  and  mortar  boats.  During  the  siege  of  six  weeks,  from 
May  27th  to  July  7th,  inclusive,  the  enemy  must  have  fired 
from  fifty  to  seventy-five  thousand  shot  and  shell,  yet  not  more 
than  twenty -five  men  were  killed  by  these  projectiles.  They 
had  worse  dangers  than  these  to  contend  against.  About  the 
29th  or  30th  of  June,  the  garrison's  supply  of  meat  gave  out, 
when  General  Gardner  ordered  the  mules  to  be  butchered 
after  ascertaining  that  the  men  were  willing  to  eat  them.  At 
the  same  time  the  supply  of  ammunition  was  becoming  ex 
hausted,  and  at  the  time  of  the  surrender  there  were  only 
twenty  rounds  of  cartridges  left,  with  a  small  supply  for 
artillery. 

On  Tuesday,  July  7th,  salutes  were  fired  from  the  enemy's 
batteries  and  gunboats,  and  loud  cheering  was  heard  along  the 
entire  line,  and  Yankees,  who  were  in  conversing  distance  of 
our  men,  told  them  that  Yicksburg  had  fallen.  That  night 
about  ten  o'clock,  General  Gardner  summoned  a  council  of 
war,  who,  without  exception,  decided  that  it  was  impossible  to 
hold  out  longer,  considering  that  the  provisions  of  the  garrison 
were  exhausted,  the  ammunition  almost  expended,  and  a  large 
proportion  of  the  men  sick  or  so  exhausted  as  to  be  unfit  for 
duty.  The  surrender  was  accomplished  on  the  morning  of  the 
9th.  The  number  of  the  garrison  which  surrendered,  was  be 
tween  five  and  six  thousand,  of  whom  not  more  than  half  were 
effective  men  for  duty. 

A  few  days  later,  and  another  disaster  is  to  be  noticed  in 
Mississippi :  the  enemy's  capture  of  Yazoo  city.  He  advanced 
against  Yazoo  city,  both  by  land  and  water,  on  the  13th  of 
July.  The  attack  of  the  gunboats  was  handsomely  repulsed 
by  our  heavy  battery,  under  the  command  of  Commander 
Isaac  N.  Brown  of  the  navy.  The  De  Kalb,  the  flag-ship  of 
the  hostile  squadron,  an  iron-clad,  mounting  thirteen  guns, 
was  sunk  by  a  torpedo.  To  the  force  advancing  by  land  no 
resistance  was  made  by  the  garrison,  commanded  by  Colonel 
Creasman,  of  the  29th  North  Carolina  regiment. 

The  greatest  misfortune  of  this  event  was  our  loss  in  boats 


THE    THIED   YEAR    OF   THE   WAR.  77 

and  material  of  a  character  much  needed.  Some  twenty  vessels 
were  scuttled  and  destroyed ;  and  of  the  fine  fleet  of  boats 
that  had  sought  refuge  in  the  Yazoo  river,  not  more  than  four 
or  five  were  saved,  which  were  up  the  Tallahatchie  and  Yello- 
busha. 

THE   BATTLE    OF   HELENA. — THE   TRANS-MISSISSIPPI. 

The  Yicksburg  disaster  was  attended  with  a  grave  mis 
fortune  on  the  other  side  of  the  Mississippi :  the  repulse  of  the 
Confederates  at  Helena.  Our  army  arrived  within  five  miles 
of  Helena  on  the  evening  of  the  3d  of  July,  when  General 
Holmes  assumed  immediate  command,  detached  Marmaduke's 
division  and  left  Price  but  two  brigades — McRae's  Arkansians 
and  Parsons'  Missourians — with  which  he  was  ordered  to  as 
sume  position,  assault  and  take  what  was  known  as  the  Grave 
yard  Hill  the  next  morning. 

The  route  lay  for  the  greater  part  of  the  way  across  abrupt 
hills  and  deep  ravines,  over  which  it  was  utterly  impossible  to 
move  artillery  during  the  darkness.  General  Price  ordered 
his  artillery  to  be  left  behind  until  daybreak,  and  moved  for 
ward  with  details  from  each  battery  accompanying  the  in 
fantry,  in  order  to  command  the  guns  which  he  expected  to 
capture. 

Within  half  a  mile  of  the  enemy's  works,  Price's  troops 
were  formed  into  two  columns  of  divisions,  Parsons'  brigade 
occupying  the  right,  moving  in  front.  Both  brigades  moved 
forward  rapidly,  steadily,  unflinching,  and  in  perfect  order 
under  a  storm  of  grape,  canister,  and  minie  balls,  which  were 
poured  upon  them  not  only  from  the  Graveyard  Hill  in  their 
front,  but  from  the  fortified  hills  upon  the  right  and  left,  both 
of  which  were  in  easy  range.  The  enemy  gave  way  before  the 
impetuous  assault  of  the  attacking  columns,  which  entering  the 
works  almost  simultaneously,  planted  the  Confederate  flag  on 
the  summit  of  the  Graveyard  Hill. 

In  the  meantime,  however,  the  attack  of  the  enemy's  works 
on  Price's  left,  which  was  to  have  been  made  by  General 
Pagan,  had  been  repeatedly  repulsed ;  although  the  men 
fought  gallantry,  and  more  than  once  drove  the  enemy  from 
his  rifle  pits,  under  a  heavy  enfilading  fire  from  one  of  the 


78  THE   THIRD   YEAR   OF   THE   WAR. 

enemy's  strongest  forts  and  a  gunboat  in  front  of  the  town. 
General  Price  had  ordered  McRae's  brigade  to  reinforce  Fa- 
gan ;  but  it  soon  became  obvious  that  it  had  been  so  much 
weakened  by  losses,  and  by  the  straggling  of  men  overcome 
by  thirst  and  the  intense  heat  of  the  day,  or  disheartened  by 
the  failure  of  the  other  assaulting  column,  that  it  could  not  be 
detached  without  too  greatly  endangering  General  Price's  own 
position.  Under  these  circumstances,  an  order  came  from 
General  Holmes  to  Price  to  withdraw  his  division.  The  at 
tack  was  abandoned  after  a  loss  to  the  Confederates  of  about 
five  or  six  hundred  killed  and  wounded,  and  probably  twice 
that  number  of  prisoners. 

But  the  result  was  important  in  other  respects  than  that  of 
the  casualties  of  the  fight.  It,  in  connection  with  the  fall  of 
Vicksburg,  terminated  all  hope  of  the  connection  of  the  Trans- 
Mississippi  with  the  eastern  portions  of  the  Confederacy,  and 
was  the  first  step  of  the  retreat  which,  at  last  abandoning  * 
Little  Rock,  was  to  surrender  into  the  hands  of  the  enemy  the 
most  valuable  portion  of  Arkansas. 

It  was  supposed  that  the  worst  consequences  of  these  events 
would  be  to  estrange  the  Trans-Mississippi,  and  easily  subject  it 
to  the  arms  or  to  the  persuasions  of  the  enemy.  Never  were 
fears  of  Confederate  statesmen  so  little  realized.  They  found 
in  this  distant  section  of  the  Confederacy  a  virtue  which  had 
been  maintained  under  all  disasters,  and  which  should  be  com 
memorated  here  in  a  brief  review  of  the  history  of  this  section. 

The  spirit  of  the  Trans-Mississippi  was  most  conspicuous  and 
noble  in  view  of  the  peculiar  sufferings  it  had  endured.  It 
had  made  a  proud  record  of  patriotic  integrity.  In  another 
volume  we  have  seen  how  the  Confederate  forces,  in  anticipa 
tion  of  a  grand  contest  near  Corinth,  were  moved  east  of  the 
Mississippi  by  order  of  General  Albert  Sidney  Johnson,  then 
commanding  the  Western  Department.  We  may  look  back 
to  that  dark  period.  The  Confederates  took  with  them  from 
Arkansas  all  material  of  war  and  public  property,  of  every 
description.  Immediately  afterwards,  Brigadier-general  Pike 
retreated  southward,  to  the  vicinity  of  Red  river.  Thus  Mis 
souri  was  left  hopeless  of  early  succor,  Arkansas  without  a 
soldier,  and  the  Indian  country  undefended,  except  by  its  own 
inhabitants.  A  Federal  force,  five  thousand  strong,  was  organ- 


THE    THIRD   YEAR    OF   THE   WAR.  79 

izcd  at  Fort  Scott,  under  the  name  of  the  "  Indian  expedition," 
and  with  the  avowed  intention  to  invade  the  Indian  country 
and  wrest  it  from  our  control.  Hostile  Indians  began  collect 
ing  on  the  border,  and  Federal  emissaries  were  busy  among 
the  Cherokees  and  Creeks,  inciting  disaffection.  Detachments 
of  Federal  cavalry  penetrated,  at  will,  into  various  parts  of  the 
•upper  half  of  Arkansas,  plundering  and  burning  houses,  steal 
ing  horses  and  slaves,  destroying  farming  utensils,  murdering 
loyal  men  or  carrying  them  into  captivity,  forcing  the  oath  of 
allegiance  on  the  tirnid,  and  disseminating  disloyal  sentiments 
among  the  ignorant.  Tory  bands  were  organized  in  many 
counties,  not  only  in  the  npper,  but  in  the  lower  half  of  the 
State  likewise,  and  depredations  and  outrages  upon  loyal  citi 
zens  were  of  constant  occurrence.  Straggling  soldiers,  belong 
ing  to  distant  commands,  traversed  the  country,  armed  and 
lawless,  robbing  the  people  of  their  property,  under  the  pre 
tence  of  "  impressing"  it  for  the  Confederate  service.  The 
governor  and  other  executive  officers  fled  from  the  capital, 
taking  the  archives  with  them.  The  courts  were  suspended, 
and  civil  magistrates  almost  universally  ceased  to  exercise 
their  functions.  Confederate  money  was  openly  refused,  or 
so  depreciated  as  to  be  nearly  worthless.  This,  with  the  short 
crop  of  the  preceding  year,  and  the  failure,  on  all  the  uplands, 
of  the  one  then  growing,  gave  rise  to  the  crudest  extortion  in 
the  necessaries  of  life,  and  menaced  the  poor  with  actual 
starvation. 

But  it  was  not  only  the  omissions  of  the  Richmond  Admin 
istration  of  which  the  Trans-Mississippi  had  to  complain. 
There  were  perpetrated  upon  it  such  positive  outrages  of  the 
Confederate  authority  as  had  never  been  ventured  or  imagined 
in  other  portions  of  the  country.  The  excesses  of  Major-gen 
eral  Hindman,  who  assumed,  by  a  certain  color  of  authority 
from  Richmond,  to  be  commanding-general  of  the  Trans-Mis 
sissippi,  had  been  severely  censured  by  members  of  the  Con 
federate  Congress,  and  were  the  subject  of  an  investigation  in 
that  body.  They  were  such  as  might  have  moved  any  people 
from  their  allegiance,  whose  patriotism  was  not  paramount  to 
all  other  considerations.  He  suspended  the  civil  authority, 
and  instituted  what  he  called  "  a  government  ad  interim"  In 
the  summer  of  1863.  he  had  proclaimed  martial  law.  To  make 


80  THE   THIRD   YEAR   OF   THE    WAR. 

tliis  declaration  effective,  a  provost  martial  was  appointed  in 
each  county,  and  all  the  independent  companies  therein  were 
placed  under  his  control.  Over  these  were  appointed  provost 
marshals  of  districts  which  included  several  counties.  The 
provost  marshal  general,  at  General  Hindman's  headquarters, 
had  command  over  all. 

Whatever  may  have  been  the  good  intentions  or  the  pallia 
tive  circumstances  of  this  singular  usurpation,  it  certainly 
could  not  be  agreeable  to  a  people  accustomed  to  civil  liberty ; 
and  it  was  an  excrescence  of  the  war,  after  the  fashion  of  Yan 
kee  "  vigor,"  which  did  serious  dishonor  to  the  Confederacy. 
We  have  referred  to  it  here  to  illustrate  the  virtues -of  a  people, 
whose  steadfast  patriotism  could  survive  such  trials. 

As  we  have  elsewhere  seen,  General  Holmes  assumed  com 
mand  of  the  Trans-Mississippi  Department  in  the  latter  part 
of  1862.  His  operations  had  been  feeble  and  unsuccessful. 
The  fall  of  Vicksburg  and  the  defeat  at  Helena,  were  irrepara 
ble  disasters.  Communication  was  interrupted  between  the 
two  sections  of  the  Confederacy,  and  each  thrown  on  its  own 
resources.  It  was  supposed  that  this  division  of  the  efforts  of 
the  Confederacy  would  tend  to  weakness  and  jealousies.  But 
these  fears  were  dismissed,  when  it  was  known  that  the  gov 
ernors  of  the  States  of  the  Trans  Mississippi  had  made  the 
recent  disasters  an  occasion  of  official  conference,  in  which 
they  had  taken  the  noble  resolution  to  do  their  respective  parts 
in  the  war,  and  to  take  care  that  the  common  cause  of  our 
independence  should  not  suffer  by  a  division  of  the  efforts  to 
obtain  it.  They  declared  that,  instead  of  such  division  of  effort 
being  occasion  of  jealousy,  it  should  be  that  of  noble  and 
patriotic  rivalry. 

It  is  not  to  be  denied  that  it  was  unfortunate  that  the  East 
ern  States  and  those  of  the  Trans-Mississippi  had  been  con 
strained  to  separate  efforts  in  the  war.  But  it  was  an  especial 
subject  of  congratulation  and  pride  that  the  spirit  and  unan 
imity  of  the  South  were  unaffected  by  such  an  event,  and  that 
the  most  distant  people  of  the  Confederacy,  not  only  faithfully 
kept,  but  fondly  cherished  their  attachment  to  the  vital  prin 
ciple  of  our  struggle  and  the  common  cause  of  our  arms. 


1THE   TJIJK|>  gA|^O^T|^l   IK&B.^ 

UNIYKRSITY  OF 

CALIFORNIA.  ^ 

CHAPTEE  IY. 

Elasticity  of  the  Spirit  of  the  Confederacy. — What  it  Taught. — Decay  of  Confi 
dence  in  President  Davis's  Administration. — His  Affection  for  Pemberton. — A  Season 
of  Encouraging  Events. — THE  CAMPAIGN  IN  LOWER  LOUISIANA. — Capture  of  Brashear 
City. — The  Affair  of  Donaldson. — THE  SIEGE  OF  CHARLESTON. — Operations  of  the 
Enemy  on  Folly  Island. — General  Beauregard's  Embarrassments. — Assault  of  the 
Enemy  of  Fort  Wagner. — His  Foothold  on  Morris  Island. — Beauregard's  Designs. — 
Bombardment  of  Fort  Wagner. — Second  Repulse  of  the  Enemy's  Assault. — Gilmore's 
Insolent  Demand. — His  Attempt  to  Fire  Charleston. — A  Noble  Reply  from  Beaure- 
gard. — Bombardment  of  Fort  Sumter. — The  Fort  in  Ruins. — Evacuation  of  Morris 
Island  by  the  Confederates.— The  Yankee  Congratulations. — Devilish  Penalties  for 
"  the  Secession  City." — Dahlgren's  Part  of  the  Programme. — His  Night  Attack  on 
Sumter. — His  Failure. — Safety  of  Charleston. — Bitterness  of  Yankee  Disappointment. 
— MORGAN'S  EXPEDITION  INTO  INDIANA  AND  OHIO. — His  Capture  of  Lebanon. — An 
Unnatural  Encounter. — Murder  of  Captain  Magennis. — The  Incursion  Through  Indi 
ana. — The  Yankee  Pursuit. — A  Chaplain's  Trick. — Operations  in  Ohio. — The  Affair 
of  Buffington  Island. — Morgan's  Attempt  to  Escape. — His  Capture  and  Imprison 
ment.— Results  of  his  Expedition,  Strategic  and  Material. — The  Value  of  Military 
Adventure. 

THE  most  remarkable  quality  displayed  by  the  Southern 
mind  in  this  war  has  been  its  elasticity  under  reverse,  its 
quick  recovery  from  every  impression  of  misfortune.  This, 
more  than  any  thing  else,  has  attested  the  strength  of  our  res 
olution  to  be  free,  and  shown  the  utter  insignificance  of  any 
"  peace  party,"  or  element  of  submission  or  compromise  in  the 
Confederacy.  Great  as  were  the  disasters  of  Yicksburg  and 
Gettysburg  they  were  the  occasions  of  no  permanent  depres 
sion  of  the  public  mind  ;  and  as  the  force  of  misfortune  could 
scarcely,  at  any  one  time,  be  expected  to  exceed  these  events, 
it  may  be  said  they  taught  the  lesson  that  the  spirit  of  the 
Confederacy  could  not  be  conquered  unless  by  some  extremity 
close  to  annihilation.  A  few  days  after  the  events  referred  to 
President  Davis  took  occasion,  in  a  proclamation  of  pardon  to 
deserters,  to  declare  that  a  victorious  peace,  with  proper  exer 
tions,  was  yet  immediately  within  our  grasp.  JSTor  was  he  ex 
travagant  in  this.  The  loss  of  territory  which  we  had  sustained, 
unaccompanied  as  it  was  by  any  considerable  adhesion  of  its 
population  to  the  enemy,  though  deplorable  indeed,  was  not  a 


82  THE   THIRD   YEAR    OF   THE    WAR. 

vital  incident  of  the  war  :  it  had  reduced  the  resources  of  sub 
sistence,  but  it  had  multiplied  the  spirit  of  resistance,  and  it 
was  yet  very  far  from  the  centre  of  our  defence.  While  Mr. 
Seward  was  making  to  Europe  material  calculations  of  Yan 
kee  success  in  the  square  miles  of  military  occupation  and  in 
the  comparative  arithmetic  of  the  military  power  of  the  bellig 
erents,  the  Confederacy  had  merely  postponed  its  prospect  of 
a  victorious  peace,  and  was  even  more  seriously  confident  of 
the  ultimate  issue  than  when  it  first  declared  its  independence. 

But  it  must  not  be  disguised  that  one,  and  perhaps  the  most 
important  of  the  disasters  referred  to — the  fall  of  Yicksburg — 
while  no  occasion  of  despair  to  the  Confederacy,  was  yet  that 
of  another  great  decline  of  popular  confidence  in  the  Adminis 
tration  of  President  Davis.  Happily,  every  page  of  the  his 
tory  of  this  war  attests  that  the  dissatisfaction  of  the  Confed 
erate  people  with  the  Richmond  Administration  was  compa 
tible  with  steady  attachment  to  that  cause  for  which  they 
fought  and  which  was  impersonal  and  sublime.  It  is  the  fact 
of  these  two  existing  conditions  in  the  Confederacy,  a  puzzle 
to  many,  that  gives  the  sublimest  quality  to  this  war,  and  con 
tains  its  most  valuable  lesson. 

Never  had  the  obstinate  adhesion  of  President  Davis  to  his 
favorites  been  more  forcibly  illustrated  than  in  the  case  of 
Pemberton.  The  criticism  of  the  public  had  no  charity  for 
this  commander,  and  his  recent  campaign,  culminating  in  the 
surrender  of  Yicksburg,  was  denounced  by  the  intelligent  as  a 
series  of  blunders,  and  by  others  less  just  and  more  passionate 
as  the  device  of  treason.  President  Davis  had  retained  him  in 
command  in  spite  of  the  most  powerful  remonstrance  ever 
made  by  a  people  against  the  gratification  of  a  personal  con 
ceit  in  their  ruler.  Indeed,  the  President  went  further  than 
mere  opposition  to  the  public  sentiment.  He  defied  and  al 
most  insulted  it ;  for  after  the  disaster  of  Yicksburg,  Pember 
ton,  with  the  public  reproaches  clinging  to  him,  and  public 
sentiment  clamoring  in  vain  for  an  inquiry  into  his  conduct, 
was  ostentatiously  entertained  as  the  President's  guest  in  Rich 
mond,  and  given  the  distinction  of  one  of  his  suite  in  the  sub 
sequent  official  visit  of  the  President  to  our  armies  in  the 
West !  It  was  said  by  Mr.  Foote,  in  public  session  of  Con 
gress,  that  when  the  President,  with  a  peculiar  hardihood,  es^ 


THE   THIRD   YEAR   OF   THE    WAR.  83 

sayed  to  ride  down  the  lines  of  our  troops,  with  Pemberton  at 
his  side,  angry  exclamations  assailed  them,  and  passed  from 
lip  to  lip  of  the  soldiers. 

There  were  certain  events  which  aided  in  relieving  the  im 
pression  of  the  Yicksburg  disaster,  or,  at  least,  served  to  divert 
the  public  mind.  Of  these  were  the  operations  of  the  Con 
federate  general,  Taylor,  in  Lower  Louisiana,  some  of  which 
had  preceded  the  fall  of  Yicksburg,  and,  at  one  time,  had  kin 
dled  in  the  South  the  hope  of  the  recapture  of  New  Orleans. 


HEE   CAMPAIGN   IN   LOWER   LOUISIANA. 

Information  received  from  Southwest  Louisiana  had  deter 
mined  General  Taylor  to  organize  an  attack  upon  Brashear 
City  and  its  forts.  Colonel  Majors,  who  commanded  a  brigade 
of  cavalry  on  the  Atchafalaya,  was  to  push  boldly  through  the 
Grosse  Tete,  Marangoin  and  Lafourche  country,  to  Donaldson- 
ville,  thence  to  Thibodeaux,  cut  off  the  railroad  and  telegraph 
communication,  then  push  rapidly  to  Boeuf  river,  in  the  rear 
of  Brashear  City,  while  a  force  under  Generals  Mouton  and 
Green  was  to  co-operate  in  front  of  the  enemy's  position,  on 
Berwick's  Bay. 

On  the  22d  of  June  General  Mouton  had  succeeded  in  col 
lecting  some  thirty-seven  skiffs  and  other  row-boats,  near  the 
mouth  of  the  Teche,  with  a  view  to  co-operate,  from  the  west 
side  of  the  Atchafalaya,  with  Colonel  Majors'  command,  then 
on  the  Lafourche.  An  expedition,  numbering  three  hundred 
and  twenty-five  gallant  volunteers,  under  Major  Sherod  Hun 
ter,  started  at  6  o'clock  p.  M.,  to  turn  the  enemy's  stronghold 
at  Brashear  City.  It  was  a  hazardous  mission  to  cross  the  lake 
(twelve  miles)  in  these  frail  barks,  to  land  at  midnight  on  the 
enemy's  side,  in  an  almost  impenetrable  swamp,  and  await  the 
dawn  of  day,  to  make  the  desperate  attempt  which  would  in 
sure  victory  or  a  soldier's  death. 

The  boat-expedition  having  got  off,  General  Thomas  Green, 
with  the  Fifth  Texas  mounted  volunteers,  the  Second  Louisi 
ana  cavalry,  Waller's  Texas  battalion,  and  the  Yalverde  and 
Nicholls'  batteries,  advanced,  under  cover  of  night,  to  opposite 
the  enemy's  camp.  The  Seventh  and  Fourth  Texas  regiments 


84:  THE   THIRD   YEAR    OF   THE   WAR. 

were  thrown  across  the  Atchafalaya,  to  Gibbons'  Island,  during 
the  night.  General  Green  was  to  attract  the  enemy's  atten 
tion  and  fire,  while  the  troops  on  Gibbons'  Island  were  to  be 
thrown  across  to  the  support  of  Major  Hunter,  as  soon  as  the 
boats  returned  from  the  latter's  landing-point,  in  rear  of  the 
enemy's  position. 

Immediately  after  daylight,  General  Green  fired  the  first 
gun  from  the  Yalverde  battery,  at  a  gunboat  of  the  enemy, 
which  was  steaming  up  the  bay  in  the  direction  of  the  upper 
fort  (Buchanan).  Instantly  the  whole  bay  was  in  a  blaze,  our 
guns  playing  upon  the  long  lines  of  the  enemy's  tents.  The 
Yankees  were  completely  surprised.  Their  heavy  guns,  from 
three  forts,  opened  on  Green.  There  was  a  keen  anxiety  on 
our  side  for  the  sound,  of  Colonel  Majors'  guns,  for  it  only  re 
mained  for  him  to  occupy  the  Bceuf  crossing,  to  cut  off  com 
pletely  the  enemy's  communication.  At  last  the  long-distant 
sound  of  artillery  told  that  Majors  was  there ;  and  at  the  same 
moment  the  storming  party  of  Major  Hunter  made  its  appear 
ance  on  the  edge  of  a  piece  of  woods.  "With  a  real  Texas 
yell  the  latter  dashed  at  once,  with  bayonets  fixed  and  pistols 
drawn,  full  at  the  threatening  walls  of  the  proud  fort — in 
twenty  minutes  they  had  climbed  its  walls,  dispersed  its  gar 
rison,  torn  down  the  stars  and  stripes,  and  hoisted  the  Con 
federate  flag  over  its  ramparts.  This  heroic  charge  was  made 
at  the  point  of  the  bayonet,  with  unloaded  muskets.  In  half 
an  hour  Generals  Taylor,  Mouton,  and  Green,  with  their  re 
spective  staffs,  had  their  headquarters  in  the  city  of  Brashear. 

The  immediate  fruits  of  the  capture  were  one  thousand 
prisoners,  ten  heavy  guns,  and  a  large  amount  of  stores  of  all 
descriptions.  The  position  obtained  by  General  Taylor,  with 
that  of  Thibodeaux,  gave  him  command  of  the  Mississippi 
river  above  New  Orleans ;  enabled  him,  in  a  great  measure, 
to  cut  off  Banks'  supplies,  and,  it  was  hoped,  might  eventually 
force  Banks  to  the  choice  of  losing  New  Orleans  or  abandon 
ing  his  operations  against  Port  Hudson. 

But  the  plan  which  General  Taylor  had  arranged  for  an  at 
tack  on  New  Orleans  unfortunately  fell  through,  in  conse 
quence  of  his  disappointment  of  reinforcements.  His  active 
force,  not  including  the  garrison  at  Berwick's  Bay,  was  less 
than  four  thousand.  He  had  obtained  from  New  Orleans  in- 


THE    THIRD   TEAR   OF   THE    WAR.  85 

telligence  of  the  fall  of  Yicksburg,  and  this,  with  the  conse 
quent  fate  of  Port  Hudson,  rendered  his  position  in  the  La- 
fourche  extremely  hazardous,  and  not  to  be  justified  on  military 
grounds. 

On  the  28th  of  June  General  Green  had  been  repulsed  in 
an  attack  on  Donaldsonville,  after  a  desperate  struggle,  with 
two  hundred  and  sixty  casualties.  On  the  12th  of  July,  after 
the  fall  of  Port  Hudson,  the  enemy,  over  four  thousand  strong, 
advanced  six  miles  from  Donaldsonville,  where  he  was  met  by 
General  Green,  with  his  own  and  a  part  of  Majors'  brigade 
(in  all  twelve  hundred  men),  and  driven  from  the  field,  with  a 
loss  of  about  five  hundred  in  killed  and  wounded,  some  three 
hundred  prisoners,  three  pieces  of  artillery,  many  small  arms, 
and  the  flag  of  a  New  York  regiment.  The  gallant  Green 
dismounted  from  his  horse,  placed  himself  at  the  head  of  his 
old  regiment,  captured  the  enemy's  guns,  and  drove  his  forces 
into  the  fort,  and  under  the  guns  of  the  fleet. 

These  operations  in  Lower  Louisiana  were  not  followed  by 
the  important  consequences  which  were  at  one  time  anticipa 
ted  :  for,  as  we  have  seen,  Taylor's  force  was  not  competent  to 
hold  the  Lafourche  country  against  the  overwhelming  forces 
of  the  enemy  released  from  the  siege  of  Port  Hudson.  Yet 
the  events  we  have  briefly  narrated,  had  afforded  a  certain  en 
couragement  to  the  South  ;  for  they  were,  at  least,  some  relief 
from  the  unwelcome  news  we  had  hitherto  had  from  an  ill- 
starred  portion  of  the  Confederacy. 

But  one  must  look  in  another  direction  for  the  first  impor 
tant  wave  of  the  returning  tide  of  victory  that  was  to  cover 
the  popular  recollection  of  Yicksburg,  and  again  exalt  the 
hopes  and  confidence  of  the  Confederacy. 


THE   SIEGE   OF  CHARLESTON. 

The  enemy  had  prepared  to  follow  up  the  achievements  of 
the  summer  campaign,  by  a  vigorous  attempt  upon  Charleston. 
It  had  been  determined  by  General  Gilmore,  in  command  of 
the  Yankee  forces,  to  take  Folly  Island,  as  the  base  of  siege 
operations  against  Charleston,  and  to  possess,  if  possible,  Mor 
ris  Island,  under  the  belief  that  it  was  the  key  to  Charleston. 


86  THE   THIRD   YEAK   OF   THE   WAE. 

This  latter  island  is  an  outer  strip  of  land,  lying  directly  on  the 
ocean.  It  is  some  three  and  a  half  miles  in  length,  and  the 
northern  end,  crowned  by  Cummings'  Point  Battery,  was  the 
goal  aimed  at  by  the  enemy,  as  it  bore  directly  on  Fort  Sum- 
ter  and  the  channel  leading  by  it  to  the  city.  At  the  southern 
extremity  of  the  island  was  another  battery,  pointing  out 
towards  the  north  end  of  Folly  Island,  where  the  Yankees  had 
been  encamped  for  many  months,  and  constructing  heavy 
works.  It  was  known  and  reported  to  the  Confederate  gov 
ernment,  that  Folly  Island  was  occupied  in  force  since  the  7th 
of  April,  and,  as  a  consequence,  that  Morris  Island  was  threat 
ened.  The  changes  of  land  and  naval  commanders  of  the  en 
emy  were  reported  as  presages  of  impending  hostilities.  But 
in  vain.  All  ideas  of  attack  were  scouted  at  Richmond,  as 
late  even  as  the  first  week  in  July. 

General  Beauregard's  force  at  Charleston  had  been  greatly 
reduced  by  the  authorities,  under  the  persistent  belief  that  the 
city  and  adjoining  coast  were  safe  from  any  serious  military 
operations  of  the  enemy.  He  was  left  to  provide  against  at 
tacks  upon  Charleston  in  no  less  than  five  different  directions. 
There  is  no  doubt  that  he  had  been  seriously  embarrassed  in 
liis  attempts  to  put  Morris  Island  in  condition  to  meet  the  at 
tack  of  the  enemy,  by  the  want  of  labor  to  carry  out  the  plans 
for  its  defence  ;  want  of  armament  for  the  works  necessary  to 
that  end ;  and  last,  but  not  least,  want  of  men  to  hold  and 
fight  any  works  which  might  have  been  thrown  up  at  the  south 
end  of  Morris  Island,  without  stripping  other  important  po 
sitions  of  the  feeble  supports  left  them. 

But  although  General  Beauregard  must  have  had  a  general 
expectation  of  attack  in  this  direction,  it  is  not  to  be  disguised, 
that  he  was  surprised  in  the  time  and  manner  of  its  develop 
ment.  It  is  said,  that  he  had  not  force  enough  left  to  venture 
upon  a  thorough  reconnoissance  of  the  enemy's  outposts  on 
Folly  Island.  For  a  number  of  weeks  the  enemy  had.  been 
busily  engaged  on  this  point  of  land,  in  building  sand  batteries 
and  mounting  heavy  guns  within  eight  hundred  yards  of  our 
works  on  Morris  Island.  The  work  was  all  performed  under 
cover  of  the  night.  Screened  from  observation  by  the  nature 
of  the  ground,  hundreds  of  men  were  engaged  night  after 
night,  silently  and  industriously  throwing  up  earthworks,  and 


THE   THIKD   YEAR    OF    THE    WAR.  87 

mounting  heavy  guns  so  near  to  the  Confederates  that  a  loud 
word  might  have  revealed  the  work.  Shortly  before  daylight 
brush  would  be  so  disposed  as  to  conceal  the  work  of  the  pre 
vious  night,  without  exciting  the  suspicions  of  the  Confederates. 
The  morning  light  would  dawn  upon  a  quiet  and  deserted 
scene — not  a  soul  to  be  seen — not  a  sound  to  be  heard — not  a 
thing  to  indicate  offensive  operations  that  the  night  had  con 
cealed.  In  this  manner  batteries  were  thrown  up,  and  guns 
and  mortars  put  in  position. 

On  the  evening  of  the  9th,  a  division  of  the  enemy  was  sent 
up  Stono  river  to  effect  a  landing  on  James  Island,  near  a 
place  called  Stevens'  Point.  This  movement  was  partially 
intended  to  occupy  the  attention  of  our  forces,  and  conceal 
from  them  the  real  object  of  the  large  fleet  of  vessels  hovering 
about  Stono  Inlet,  and  movements  of  the  enemy  on  Folly 
Island.  At  nightfall  small  boats,  loaded  with  armed  men, 
began  to  dash  out  from  either  shore.  These  men  were  to 
make  their  way  up  the  narrow  creek,  which  makes  into  Morris 
Island,  and  there  wait  till  morning,  when  on  a  given  signal 
they  would  assault  the  battery.  This  force  was  under  General 
Strong. 

At  daybreak  on  the  following  morning,  the  brush  and 
boughs,  which  had  served  to  conceal  the  battery  on  Folly 
Island  from  observation,  were  hastily  removed,  and  the  guns 
exposed  to  the  Confederates.  At  five  o'clock  the  first  gun 
was  heard  from  the  enemy's  battery.  The  battery  was  some 
what  screened  from  view  by  a  grove  of  trees,  but  the  incessant 
cannonade,  and  the  dense  white  smoke,  which  rose  above  the 
tall  pines,  told  how  fearfully  the  contest  raged. 

In  the  meantime  the  assaulting  column  of  the  enemy,  con 
sisting  of  three  regiments,  moved  on  slowly  and  silently  up 
the  beach,  until  they  arrived  within  two  hundred  yards  of 
Fort  Wagner,  when  the  Confederate  pickets  were  encountered. 
The  order  to  charge  was  given.  The  fort  opened  with  three 
eight-inch  howitzers,  heavily  charged  with  grape  and  canister. 
The  Seventh  Connecticut,  which  was  in  the  advance,  pressed 
through  the  fort,  but  the  Pennsylvania  and  New  York  regi 
ments,  which  were  to  support  them,  staggered  back  and  lost 
their  distance,  when  all  three  regiments  broke  into  a  shameful 
run,  scattering  down  the  beach. 


88  THE   THIRD   YEAR    OF    THE   WAR. 

The  assault  of  the  enemy  was  a  shameful  failure.  The  loss 
of  life  was  inconsiderable,  as  two  of  the  regiments  kept  out  of 
the  fire,  and  we  may  imagine  how  many  were  "  missing" 
when  the  casualties  in  the  storming  party  were  officially 
enumerated  by  the  enemy  as  three  hundred  and  thirty-four. 
But  as  our  lower  battery  had  been  abandoned,  the  Yankees 
had  succeeded  in  getting  possession  of  the  lower  end  of  the 
island.  They  had  gained  a  foothold,  and  were  now  to  direct 
all  their  energies  to  get  possession  of  Fort  Wagner.  This 
strong  earthwork  was  near  midway  of  the  island,  and  had  to 
be  reduced  before  the  enemy  could  reach  Cummings'  Point, 
and  operate  from  there  on  Fort  Su niter. 

The  enemy  having  once  obtained  a  foothold  on  Morris 
Island,  it  might  have  been  easily  foreseen  that  he  would 
eventually  compel  an  evacuation  by  the  operations  of  siege, 
and  the  impossibility  of  defending  forever  a  small  island  cut 
off  from  communication  by  an  enormous  fleet.  But  it  was  not 
to  be  given  up  without  a  brilliant  incident  of  arms  ;  for  Gen 
eral  Beauregard  had  determined  to  hold  it,  while  works  were 
elsewhere  erected,  and  until  the  door  of  honorable  retreat  wras 
open. 

In  about  a  week  the  Yankees  had  occupied  Black  Island — a 
small  spot  between  James  and  Morris  Islands — and  thrown  up 
a  battery  ;  they  had  erected  two  or  three  additional  batteries 
on  Morris  Island,  about  one  and  three-quarter  miles  from  Fort 
"Wagner,  and  they  had  concentrated  their  fleet,  consisting  of 
four  monitors,  the  Ironsides,  a  frigate,  and  four  gunboats, 
some  of  which  threw  shell  from  mortars.  Altogether,  the 
circle  of  fire  embraced  not  far  from  seventy  guns.  At  day 
light,  of  the  18th  August,  these  opened,  first  deliberately  ;  but 
as  the  morning  wore  on  the  fire  increased.  Two  monitors,  two 
mortar  boats,  and  the  Ironsides,  had  by  ten  o'clock  formed  a 
line  nearly  in  front  of  Battery  Wagner,  and  about  noon  these 
were  joined  by  two  additional  monitors.  Until  six  o'clock  in 
the  evening  the  firing  was  incessant.  There  was  scarcely  an 
interval  that  did  not  contain  a  reverberation  of  the  heavy 
guns,  and  the  shock  of  the  rapid  discharges  trembling  through 
the  city  called  hundreds  of  citizens  to  the  battery,  wharves, 
steeples,  and  various  look-outs,  where,  with  an  interest  never 
felt  before,  they  looked  on  a  contest  that  might  decide  the  fate 


THE    THIKD   YEAR   OF   THE    WAK.  89 

of  their  fair  city.  Above  Battery  Wagner,  bursting  high  in 
air,  striking  the  sides  of  the  work  or  plunging  into  the  beach, 
and  throwing  up  pillars  of  earth,  were  to  be  seen  the  quickly- 
succeeding  shells  and  round  shot  of  the  enemy's  guns.  Bat-  , 
tery  Gregg  at  Cummings'  Point  and  Fort  Sumter  took  part  in 
the  thundering  chorus.  As  the  shades  of  evening  fell  upon 
the  scene  the  entire  horizon  appeared  to  be  lighted  up  with 
the  fitful  flashings  of  the  lurid  flames  that  shot  out  from  mon 
ster  guns  on  land  and  sea. 

As  night  began  to  fall  the  bombardment  relaxed.  But  it 
was  known  to  our  officers  commanding  that  such  a  demon 
stration  on  the  part  of  the  enemy  was  not  without  its  object; 
and  every  man  was  ordered,  by  General  Taliaferro,  who  com 
manded  our  side,  to  the  parapet  to  prepare  for  the  expected 
assault  of  the  enemy. 

At  dusk  two  brigades  of  the  enemy  were  formed  in  line  on 
the  beach.  The  regiments  were  disposed  in  columns,  except  a 
Massachusetts  regiment  of  blacks,  which,  for  peculiar  reasons, 
was  given  the  post  of  extreme  honor  and  extreme  danger  in 
the  advance,  and  was  drawn  up  in  line  of  battle,  exposing  its 
full  front  to  our  fire. 

The  enemy  moved  forward  at  quick  time  and  in  deep  silence. 
As  they  reached  the  vicinity  of  our  rifle-pits,  our  batteries 
opened,  and  grape  and  canister  was  thrown  into  their  ranks 
with  fearful  precision  and  execution.  Checked  for  an  instant 
only,  they  closed  up  the  ragged  gaps  in  their  lines  and  moved 
steadily  on  until  within  less  than  eighty  yards. 

Barely  waiting  for  the  Yankees  to  get  within  a  destructive 
range  our  infantry  opened  their  fusilade,  and  from  a  fringe  of 
fire  that  lined  the  parapet  leaped  forth  a  thousand  messengers 
of  death.  Staggering  under  the  shock,  the  first  line  seemed 
for  a  moment  checked,  but,  pushed  on  by  those  in  the  rear, 
the  whole  now  commenced  a  charge  at  a  "  double-quick."  Our 
men  could  not  charge  back ;  but  they  gave  a  Southern  yell  in 
response  to  the  Yankee  cheer,  a.nd  awaited  the  attack.  On 
they  came  over  the  sand-hills,  tripping  and  stumbling  in  the 
huge  pits  their  own  shells  had  dug,  until  they  reached  the 
ditch  of  the  battery ;  then  it  was  but  a  moment's  work  for 
those  who  survived  our  terrible  fire  of  musketry  to  clamber  up 
the  sloping  sides  of  the  fortification  and  attempt  to  effect  a 


90  THE    THESD   YEAR    OF   THE   WAK. 

lodgment.  But  the  men  who  met  them  on  the  parapet  were  as 
desperate  as  themselves,  and  the  contest  that  ensued  was  brief 
and  bloody.  The  antagonists  were  breast  to  breast,  and  South 
ern  rifles  and  Southern  bayonets  made  short  work  of  human 
life.  .We  could  stop  to  take  no  prisoners  then.  The  parapet 
was  lined  with  dead  bodies,  white  and  black,  and  every  second 
was  adding  to  the  number.  It  was  one  of  those  rencounters  in 
which  one  side  or  the  other  must  quickly  yield  or  fly.  The 
enemy  took  their  choice. 

In  less  than  five  minutes  probably,  the  first  line  had  been 
shot,  bayoneted,  or  were  in  full  retreat — rolling  into  the  ditch 
or  dragging  their  bloody  bodies  through  the  sand-hills  on  their 
hands  and  knees.  But  another  line  came,  and  another  and 
another,  each  reinforcing  its  predecessor,  until  the  battle  waxed 
hot,  fierce,  and  bloody.  Finally,  however,  the  whole  were 
driven  back,  either  into  the  broad  trench  at  the  base  of  the 
battery,  out  of  reach  of  our  guns,  or  scampering  out  of  view  in 
the  darkness  of  the  night. 

There  was  now  a  comparative  lull  in  the  firing,  but  in  fifteen 
or  twenty  minutes  a  second  column  of  Yankees  filed  down  on 
the  beach  towards  the  left  of  the  fort  in  much  the  same  manner 
as  that  pursued  by  the  first.  These  repeated  the  experiment 
that  had  just  before  terminated  so  disastrously  to  their  com 
panions,  and,  with  a  bravery  that  was  worthy  of  a  better 
cause,  dashed  upon  the  work.  The  first  assault  failed  utterly, 
but  with  the  reinforcements  that  joined  the  defeated  party, 
^they  came  again  with  such  strength  and  impetuosity  that 
between  the  extreme  darkness  of  the  night,  which  had  now 
enveloped  the  entire  scene,  the  difficulty  of  distinguishing 
friend  and  foe,  and  the  confusion  incident  to  such  an  occasion, 
some  two  or  three  hundred,  as  is  estimated,  effected  a  lodg 
ment  in  the  vicinity  of  the  chambers  occupied  by  two  of  our 
guns.  Most  of  these  were  taken  prisoners. 

About  midnight  the  enemy  gave  the  order  to  retire.  His 
repulse  had  been  terribly  disastrous  in  loss  of  life.  His  killed 
and  wounded,  according  to  his  own  accounts,  was  fifteen 
hundred  and  fifty  ;  and  the  next  day  we  buried  six  hundred  of 
his  dead  left  on  the  field.  Our  own  loss  was  comparatively 
light,  not  more  than  one  hundred  in  killed  and  wounded. 

While  the  enemy  was  constrained  to  fall  back  upon  siege 


THE  THIRD  TEAR  OF  THE  WAR  91 

operations  against  Fort  Wagner,  it  was  determined  by  Gilmore 
to  employ  his  batteries  in  the  reduction  of  Fort  Sumter,  over 
the  heads  of  both  Wagner  and  Gregg. 

But  there  was  an  episode,  which  was  an  introduction  to 
these  operations  against  Sumter,  and  which  must  not  be 
omitted  here.  On  the  21st  of  August,  Gilmore  addressed  to 
General  Beauregard  a  demand,  which  was  curiously  without 
signature,  for  the  evacuation  of  Morris  Island  and  Fort  Sumter ; 
stating  that  Sumter  was  already  doomed  to  swift  and  complete 
demolition,  and  that,  if  the  Confederate  commander  did  riot 
comply  with  his  demand  within  four  hours^  a  fire  would  be 
opened  on  the  city  of  Charleston  from  batteries  already  estab 
lished  within  easy  and  effective  reach  of  the  heart  of  the  city. 
In  the  following  night  and  without  further  notice  fire  was 
opened  on  the  city  from  Morris  Island'  batteries.  Twelve 
eight-inch  shells  fell  in  the  city  ;  several  flew  in  the  direction  of 
St.  Michael's  steeple;  but  fortunately  no  one  was  injured. 

Of  this  atrocious  and  cowardly  episode  General  Beauregard 
said  in  a  letter  addressed  to  Gilmore  :  "  It  would  appear,  Sir, 
that,  despairing  of  reducing  these  works,  you  now  resort  to  the 
novel  means  of  turning  your  guns  against  the  old  men,  the 
women  and  children,  and  the  hospitals  of  a  sleeping  city ;  an 
act  of  inexcusable  barbarity  from  your  own  confessed  point  of 
sight,  inasmuch  as  you  allege  that  the  complete  demolition  of 
Fort  Sumter  within  a  few  hours  by  your  guns  seems  to  you  a 
matter  of  certainty  ;  and  your  omission  to  attach  your  signature 
to  such  a  grave  paper  must  show  the  recklessness  of  the  course 
upon  which  you  have  adventured,  while  the  fact  that  you 
knowingly  fixed  a  limit  for  receiving  an  answer  to  your  de 
mand,  which  made  it  almost  beyond  the  possibility  of  receiving 
any  reply  within  that  time,  and  that  you  actually  did  open  fire 
and  threw  a  number  of  the  most  destructive  missiles  ever  used 
in  war  into  the  midst  of  a  city  taken  unawares,  and  filled  with 
sleeping  women  and  children,  will  give  you  a  bad  eminence  in 
history — even  in  the  history  of  this  war." 

The  same  day  that  Gilmore  made  his  feeble  attempt  to 
execute  the  threat  he  had  so  fiercely  and  confidently  breathed 
against  Charleston,  he  opened  heavily  against  the  east  face  of 
Fort  Sumter  from  his  land  batteries  enfilading  it.  The  can 
nonade  was  continued  throughout  the  day,  nine  hundred  and 


92  THE    THIRD   YEAR   OF   THE   WAK. 

forty-three  shots  being  fired.  The  effect  was  to  batter  the 
eastern  face  heavily,  doing  considerable  damage,  and  to  disable 
one  ten-inch  gun  and  a  rifled  forty- two  pounder.  On  the  22d 
the  enemy  threw  six  hundred  and  four  shots  at  the  fort,  dis 
abling  some  of  the  barbette  guns,  demolishing  the  arches  of  the 
north-west  face,  and  scaling  the  eastern  face  severely.  The  next 
day  the  fire  from  the  enemy's  land  batteries  was  kept  up  on 
Sumter,  disabling  the  only  ten-inch  columbiad  that  remained, 
and  the  three  rifled  forty-two-pounders  in  the  northern  salient 
of  the  second  tier.  The  eastern  face  was  badly  scaled,  and  the 
parapet  seriously  injured.  The  flag-staff  was  twice  shot  away, 
but  the  flag  each  time  immediately  replaced. 

On  the  24th  of  August  General  Gil  more  announced  in  des 
patches  to  Washington  that  "  Fort  Sumter  was  a  shapeless  and 
harmless  mass  of  ruins."  His  chief  of  artillery  reported  its 
destruction  so  far  complete  that  it  was  no  longer  of  any  avail 
in  the  defence  of  Charleston.  But  in  this  there  was  some 
mistake.  Fort  Sumter  was  in  one  respect  stronger  than  ever; 
for  the  battering  down  of  the  upper  walls  had  rendered  the 
casemated  base  impregnable,  and  the  immense  volume  of  stone 
and  debris  which  protected  it  was  not  at  all  affected  by  the 
enemy's  artillery.  It  had  been  held  through  the  siege  and 
cannonade  by  the  First  South  Carolina  artillery,  under  Colonel 
Alfred  Rhett,  ilntil  its  armament  had  been  disabled ;  and  the 
services  of  the  artillerymen  being  elsewhere  required,  General 
Beauregard  determined  that  it  should  be  held  by  infantry.  On 
the  night  of  the  4th,  of  September,  the  Charleston  battalion, 
under  Major  Blake,  relieved  the  garrison ;  Major  Stephen 
Elliot  relieving  Colonel  Rhett  in  command  of  the  post. 

In  the  mean  time  the  enemy's  operations  on  Morris  Island 
had  fearfully  progressed.  His  sappers  had  advanced  up  to  the 
very  moat  of  Wagner.  On  the  night  of  the  4th  September  the 
enemy  kept  up  a  continual  fire,  and  on  the  morning  of  the  5th 
the  Ironsides  combined  her  fire  with  the  enemy's  land  bat 
teries,  all  concentrated  on  Wagner.  The  effect  was  to  severely 
injure  the  traverses  and  communications,  and  to  disable  the 
guns  and  equipments  still  more  effectually.  But  Wagner  was 
not  the  only  object  of  this  bombardment.  During  the  night 
of  the  5th  the  enemy  displayed  from  the  deck  of  a  monitor  off 
Morris  Island  an  immense  calcium  light,  and  several  monitors 


THE    TIJIKD   TEAK   OF   THE   WAR.  93 

soon  after  moved  up  and  opened  on  battery  Gregg.  Moultrie 
and  Gregg  replied  with  spirit.  At  a  quarter  to  two  a  rocket 
was  thrown  up,  and  ere  many  minutes  elapsed,  the  enemy 
were  discerned  approaching  Morris  Island  at  a  point  between 
Gregg  and  Wagner.  They  had  come  down  in  barges  through 
a  creek  west  of  Morris  Island,  obviously  with  the  design  of  as 
saulting  Gregg  in  the  rear.  Advancing  in  line  of  battle  they 
were  permitted  to  come  very  near,  when  a  nine  inch  Dahlgren 
opened  upon  them  at  short  range,  with  double  canister.  Our 
howitzers  then  commenced  a  fire  of  shrapnel  and  canister, 
while  our  infantry,  admirably  posted,  poured  into  them  a  fire 
of  musketry.  This  the  Yankees  could  not  withstand,  and 
though  for  a  very  short  while  they  maintained  a  fire  of  mus 
ketry  and  grape  shot  from  their  barges,  they  were  soon  forced 
to  withdraw. 

For  three  days  and  nights  battery  Wagner  had  been  sub 
jected  to  the  most  terrific  fire  that  any  earthwork  had  under 
gone  in  all  the  annals  of  warfare.  In  these  nights  the  whole  of 
Charleston  harbor  had  been  lighted  up  in  a  scene  of  terrible 
beauty.  From  Moultrie  almost  to  Secessionville  a  whole  semi 
circle  of  the  horizon  was  lit  up  by  incessant  flashes  from 
cannon  and  shell.  As  peal  on  peal  of  artillery  rolled  across 
the  waters,  one  could  scarcely  resist  the  belief  that  not  less 
than  a  thousand  great  guns  were  in  action.  All  this  went  on 
beneath  a  waning  September  moon,  which,  with  its  warm 
Southern  light,  mellowed  by  a  somewhat  misty  atmosphere, 
brought  out  softly,  yet  distinctly,  the  most  distant  outlines  of 
the  harbor. 

The  effect  of  the  fire  on  Wagner  had  been  terrible.  The 
immense  descending  force  of  the  enormous  Parrott  and  mortar 
shells  of  the  enemy  had  nearly  laid  the  wood  work  of  the 
bombproofs  entirely  bare,  and  had  displaced  the  sand  to  so 
great  a  degree  that  the  sally-ports  were  almost  entirely  blocked 
up.  Wagner  and  battery  Gregg  had  now  been  held  under  a  con 
tinued  and  furious  cannonade,  by  land  and  sea,  for  fifty-seven 
days  ;  two  assaults  had  been  signally  and  gloriously  repulsed  ; 
the  enemy  had  been  forced  to  expend  time,  men  and  material, 
most  lavishly  in  approaching  the  first ;  but  at  this  time  he  was 
within  a  few  yards  of  the  salient ;  most  of  the  guns  of  the  fort 
were  injured,  transportation  and  supply  had  become  most 


94:  THE    THIRD   TEAR   OF   THE   WAR. 

difficult  with  the  inefficient  means  at  our  disposal,  the  possi 
bility  of  throwing  heavy  reinforcements  in  time  to  resist  an 
assault  by  the  enemy's  overwhelming  forces,  issuing  from  his 
trendies  only  a  few  yards  distant,  out  of  the  question,  and  the 
practicability  of  keeping  a  sufficient  force  on  the  island  for  the 
purpose,  under  the  furious  cannonade  from  land  and  sea,  with 
out  protecting  shelter,  scarcely  less  so.  This  matter  had  been 
some  time  under  consideration  by  General  Beauregard,  and 
after  receiving  reports  concerning  the  state  of  the  works,  and 
our  capabilities  for  reinforcing  the  garrison,  it  was  determined 
not  to  subject  those  brave  men.  the  flower  of  our  force,  to  the 
desperate  chances  of  assault.  Orders  were  accordingly  given, 
on  the  morning  of  the  6th,  to  prepare  for  evacuation. 

It  commenced  about  9  p.  M.,  and  was  concluded  at  about 
twelve.  The  guns  of  the  batteries  were  spiked  and  implements 
generally  destroyed.  Matches  were  fixed  to  explode  the  maga 
zines,  but,  from  some  unfortunate  cause,  both  those  at  Wagner 
and  Gregg  failed  to  explode.  The  enemy  threw  his  calcium 
light  on  Wagner  during  the  whole  night,  and  one  of  the  most 
furious  bombardments  on  record,  even  during  this  war,  was 
continuously  kept  up  while  the  movements  were  progressing ; 
but  he  did  not  ascertain  the  evacuation  until  the  last  of  the 
boats  were  leaving.  Then  his  guard-boats  discovered  the 
movement  of  our  boats  engaged  in  the  embarkation,  and 
creeping  up  upon  the  rear  succeeded  in  cutting  off  and  cap 
turing  three  barges. 

Thus  ended  the  defence  of  Morris  Island — one  relieved  by 
much  of  glory  to  Confederate  arms,  and  its  conclusiou,  as  we 
shall  soon  see,  an  empty  advantage  to  the  enemy.  The  de 
fence  had  been  prolonged  far  beyond  what  was  deemed  possi 
ble  at  first,  and  the  brave  garrisons  who  had  held  it  deserved 
the  admiration  of  their  countrymen.  The  aggregate  of  casual 
ties  in  the  struggle  for  the  Island  have  been  on  our  side  about 
seven  hundred — killed,  wounded,  and  missing.  The  enemy's 
loss  was  estimated  at  several  thousand. 

The  occupation  of  Morris  Island  was  the  signal  to  the  enemy 
of  great  but  temporary  exultation.  The  Yankee  newspapers 
flattered  their  readers  that  it  was  the  key  of  Charleston.  But 
the  fact  was  that  no  one  point  in  its  fortification  could  be  so 
called.  In  the  system  of  Yaughan  there  was  always  such  a 


THE    THIRD   YEAR   OF   THE   WAR.  95 

point; — once  taken,  it  commanded  the  rest.  But  the  excel 
lence  of  the  new  system  of  defence,  illustrated  at  Comorn  and 
Sebastopol,  and  repeated  at  Charleston,  was  the  necessity  of  a 
siege  for  every  battery,  in  which  the  besiegers  were  always 
exposed  to  the  fire  of  others.  It  was  easily  seen  by  the  Con 
federates  that  such  a  defence,  if  conducted  with  courage,  by  an 
army  which  could  not  be  surrounded  and  starved,  might  be 
easily  rendered  interminable. 

But  such  was  not  the  opinion  of  Gilmore.  On  his  occupa 
tion  of  the  island  he  announced  to  the  exultant  authorities  at 
Washington:  "The  city  and  harbor  of  Charleston  are  now 
completely  covered  by  my  guns."  Now  was  the  time,  de 
clared  the  newspapers,  for  the  famous  Greek  fire  to  pour  de 
struction  upon  "  the  secession  city."  "  General  Gilmore," 
said  the  Baltimore  American,  "  may  be  expected  to  roll  his 
fire-shells  through  the  streets  of  Charleston."  That  com 
mander  had  already  been  experimenting  in  liquid  fire,  and  in 
a  new. style  of  bombs  filled  with  fuses.  During  the  bombard 
ment  of  Surnter,  in  one  of  his  official  despatches  he  had  de 
clared  with  devilish  complacency:  "the  projectiles  from  my 
batteries  entered  the  city  of  Charleston,  and  General  Beaure- 
gard  himself  designates  them  as  the  most  destructive  missiles 
used  in  war." 

But  the  enemy's  fleet  was  now  to  appear  upon  the  scene  to 
accomplish  the  reduction  of  Charleston.  General  Gilmore  had 
proposed — firstly,  the  occupation  of  the  southern  portion  of 
Morris  Island  ;  secondly,  the  capture  of  Wagner  and  Gregg ; 
thirdly,  the  reduction  of  Sumter.  At  that  point  Admiral 
Dahlgren  was  to  take  up  the  work,  for  it  was  calculated  that 
if  Gilmore  succeeded  in  his  designs,  the  navy  would  find  it  a 
comparatively  easy  task  to  ascend  the  harbor  of  Charleston. 

But  had  the  condition  as  to  Sumter  been  fulfilled?  On  the 
7th  of  September  Admiral  Dahlgren  sent  in  a  flag  of  truce  de 
manding  a  surrender  of  the  fort.  General  Beauregard  tele 
graphed  to  Major  Elliot  to  reply  that  the  Yankees  could  have 
Fort  Sumter  when  they  took  it  and  held  it,  and  that,  in  the 
mean  time,  such  demands  were  puerile  and  unbecoming. 

Dahlgren  was  left  to  complete  the  programme  in  Charleston 
Harbor,  and  the  North  waited  to  hear  that  the  possession  of 
"  the  shapeless  mass  of  ruins"  that  had  once  been  Fort  Sum- 


96  THE   THIRD   YEAK   OF   THE    WAR. 

ter  was  readily  accomplished,  and  that  Charleston,  the  cyno 
sure  of  Yankee  hatred,  was  at  last  the  prize  of  the  costly  and 
protracted  operations.  It  remained  for  the  Yankee  admiral  to 
accept  the  invitation  to  assault  Sumter,  and  he  proposed  to  do 
so  by  an  elaborate  surprise.  A  special  force  of  picked  men 
from  all  the  fleet  was  organized  for  a  night  attack. 

It  was  midnight  of  the  8th  of  September,  when  the  expedi 
tion,  consisting  of  over  twenty  boats,  and  with  thirty-four 
officers  and  four  hundred  and  thirteen  men,  of  which  one 
hundred  and  twenty  were  marines,  all  under  the  command  of 
Commander  Stevens,  pulled  its  way  silently  and  cautiously 
towards  Fort  Sumter.  The  plan  wras  to  assail  the  fort  on  three 
sides — one  party  landing  on  the  gorge-wall,  and  attempting  to 
ascend  the  debris  and  gain  the  parapet ;  a  second  was  to  at 
tempt  to  gain  entrance  through  the  lower  embrasures,  and  a 
third  was  to  act  as  a  reserve. 

At  half-past  one  in  the  morning  the  first  line  of  boats  was 
close  upon  the  fort.  The  enemy  had  supposed  it  to  be  feebly 
garrisoned,  and  had  hoped  to  find  an  unguarded  moment. 
The  garrison  consisted  of  the  Charleston  Battalion,  command- 
by  Major  Stephen  Elliot.  They  were  not  asleep.  As  the 
Yankee  boats,  crept  up  to  the  huge  and  shapeless  mass  of 
shivered  walls,  all  was  dark  and  still ;  the  great  black  rifted 
mound  seemed  some  long-deserted  ruin,  where  the  lizards  had 
crept  into  their  holes  for  the  night,  and  the  very  bats  and  owls 
had  gone  to  bed.  They  approached  with  beating  hearts.  It 
appeared,  indeed,  that  the  hour  of  doom  for  Sumter  and  for 
Charleston  was  come. 

Suddenly  a  "fire  of  hell"  streamed  from  out  of  the  night. 
The  stilly  ruin  becomes  as  a  throat  of  the  bottomless  pit ;  the 
bay  is  lighted  with  signals ;  and  on  the  instant,  from  Fort 
Moultrie  and  from  a  gunboat  in  the  harbor,  hail  of  shot  and 
shell  comes  crashing  around  the  barges. 

Major  Elliot  had  caused  his  fire  to  be  reserved  until  the 
enemy  was  within  a  few  yards  of  the  southern  and  eastern 
faces  upon  which  the  landing  was  attempted.  A  close  fire  of 
musketry  devoured  those  who  had  landed  ;  while  three  of  the 
boats  were  torn  to  pieces  by  hand  grenades  or  shells  from  the 
distant  batteries.  The  garrison  lined  the  walls  of  Sumter,  and 
as  the  Yankees  landed  on  the  rocks,  received  them  with  sharp 


THE    THIRD    YEAR    OF    THE    WAR.  97 

volleys  of  musketry,  which  added  confusion  to  their  already 
bewildered  movements.  A  strong  party  of  the  enemy  now 
hastily  gathered  and  made  an  attempt  to  climb  over  the  ruins 
of  the  sally-port,  which  had  been  torn  down  by  the  tremen 
dous  fire  of  their  land  batteries.  Our  men  received  them 
breast  to  breast,  pelting  them  with  brickbats  and  pouring  in  a 
spattering  shower  of  balls.  Some  bolder  than  the  others,  dashed 
forward,  and  seizing  Yankees,  one  in  each  hand,  dragged  them 
by  main  force  inside.  Thus  the  fight  raged  for  twenty  or 
thirty  minutes,  when  the  Yankees,  finding  themselves  over 
powered,  and  likely  to  be  cut  to  pieces,  threw  down  their 
arms,  retreated  to  the  shelter  of  the  walls  and  surrendered. 
Those  who  remained  in  the  boats,  not  already  landed,  made 
their  escape  under  the  cover  of  the  night,  followed,  however, 
by  the  spiteful  balls  of  the  batteries  of  Moultrie  and  of  the 
gunboat  Chicora. 

Not  a  life  was  lost  on  our  side.  Major  Elliot  succeeded  in 
securing  five  boats,  five  stand  of  colors,  twelve  officers,  and 
one  hundred  and  nine  men,  including  two  officers  and  seven 
teen  men  wounded.  Amongst  the  captured  colors  was  a  worn 
and  torn  garrison-flag,  reported  by  some  of  the  prisoners  as 
being  that  which  Major  Anderson  was  permitted  to  take  from 
the  fort,  on  the  occasion  of  his  being  compelled  to  surrender, 
in  April,  1861.  This  had  been  brought  to  hoist  on  the  fort, 
and  to  be  made  the  subject  of  boast  and  Yankee  "sensation," 
had  the  assault  succeeded.  u  It  was,"  says  a  Charleston  paper, 
"the  identical  'gridiron'  carried  from  Fort  Sumter  in  1861  ; 
exhibited  to  a  monster  mass  meeting  in  New  York  shortly 
after  ;  talked,  cheered,  and  prayed  over  until  almost  sanctified  ; 
wrapped  around  the  gouty  limbs  of  General  Scott,  and  finally 
brought  back  under  oath  that  it  should  be  victoriously 
replanted  on  the  walls  where  it  was  first  lowered  in  recogni 
tion  of  the  Southern  Confederacy." 

This  unsuccessful  attempt  to  open  the  way  to  Charleston, 
leaves  but  little  to  record  of  the  operations  of  the  enemy 
against  this  famous  city.  Those  operations  were  to  be  nomi 
nally  continued  for  many  long  and  weary  months  ;  there  were 
daily  bulletins  of  bombardments ;  but  the  more  intelligent 
persons  of  the  North  were  not  to  be  deceived  by  the  noisy  and 
expensive  display,  and  readily  came  to  the  conclusion  that  the 

7 


98  THE   THIRD   YEAR   OF   THE    WAR. 

siege  of  Charleston  was  a  failure,  and  that,  despite  Dahlgren's 
noisy  protest,  it  was  virtually  abandoned.  Months  were  to 
pass,  and  the  Yankee  admiral  was  to  make  no  attempt  to 
move  up  the  harbor  and  complete  not  only  the  remaining  part; 
of  the  expedition,  but  that  which  he  had  promised  to  do  when 
he  assumed  command  of  the  fleet. 

It  is  unnecessary  to  pursue  here  the  desultory  record  of  a 
fruitless  bombardment.  The  Yankee  public  had  had  such  a 
series  of  emotions,  surprises,  and  disappointments  about 
Charleston,  that  it  sickened  of  the  name,  and  seemed  to  be 
fast  progressing  to  the  opinion  that  the  monitors  were  a  fail 
ure,  that  their  Parrott  guns  and  monster  artillery  had  been 
greatly  overrated,  and  that  sand-bank  fortifications  were  sub 
stantially  impregnable  to  their  vaunted  artillery.  "  How 
many  times,"  asked  an  indignant  Philadelphia  paper,  u  has 
Fort  Surnter  been  taken  ?  How  many  times  has  Charleston 
been  burned  ?  How  often  have  the  people  been  on  the  eve  of 
starvation  and  surrender  ?  How  many  times  has  the  famous 
Greek  fire  poured  the  rain  of  Sodom  and  the  flames  of  hell 
upon  the  secession  city  ?  We  cannot  keep  the  count — though 
those  can  who  rang  the  bells  and  put  out  the  flags,  and 
invoked  the  imprecations,  and  rejoiced  at  the  story  of  confla 
gration  and  ruin." 

We  must  leave  here  the  story  of  Charleston  :  the  city  safe 
beneath  the  pale  autumn  sky,  with  the  waters  of  its  beautiful 
bay  un vexed  by  the  busy  keel  of  commerce,  yet  sleeping 
quietly  ;  while  across  them  might  be  seen  the  Yankee  flag 
floating  from  the  parapet  of  Wagner,  then  the  enemy's  bat 
teries,  still  beyond  these  the  white  tents  of  the  enemy,  and 
further  yet,  over  the  woods  of  James  Island,  the  masts  of  the 
fleet.  A  large  besieging  force  was  in  sight  of  the  spires  of 
Charleston,  and  yet  the  city  was  safe,  and  proclaimed  to  the 
Confederacy  new  lessons  of  brilliant  courage  and  hope. 

We  have  referred  to  the  period  which  this  chapter  traverses 
as  one  of  encouraging  events  for  the  South.  The  reader's 
attention  must  be  turned  back  from  the  coast  to  the  fields  of 
the  West,  for  another  in  the  list  of  successes  which  made  this 
period  fortunate. 


THE   THIRD    YEAE    OF   THE   WAR.  99 


MORGAN'S  EXPEDITION  INTO  INDIANA  AND  OHIO. 

i 

The  command  of  General  Morgan,  consisting  of  detachments 
from  two  brigades,  numbering  two  thousand  and  twenty-eight 
effective  men,  with  four  pieces  of  artillery — two  Parrotts  and 
two  howitzers — left  Sparta,  Tennessee,  on  the  27th  of  June, 
and  crossed  the  Cumberland  near  Burkesville  on  the  2d  July. 

On  the  4th  of  July,  the  expedition  took  up  the  line  of  march 
for  Green  river  bridge.  An  attack  was  here  made  upon  the 
enemy,  who  were  found  to  be  posted  in  a  strong  position,  pro 
tected  by  well  constructed  stockades.  On  account  of  the 
superior  strength  of  the  works  our  forces  failed  to  carry  the 
position. 

From  Green  river  bridge  Morgan  next  directed  his  atten 
tion  to  the  town  of  Lebanon.  He  encamped  within  five  miles 
of  the  place  on  the  night  of  the  4th.  He  at  once  demanded 
the  surrender  of  the  place,  which  was  refused  by  the  Yankee 
officer  in  command  of  the  post.  A  heavy  engagement  ensued 
next  day,  which  lasted,  with  considerable  spirit,  for  some 
hours,  the  Yankees  stubbornly  resisting,  firing  from  the 
houses.  Finally  a  charge  was  ordered,  and  the  town  was 
captured,  together  with  the  whole  Yankee  force,  consisting  of 
about  six  hundred  effective  men,  together  with  a  large  amount 
of  stores,  arms,  &c.  In  the  charge  was  killed  Lieutenant  Thos. 
Morgan,  a  brother  of  the  general,  who  was  shot  through  the 
heart.  He  fell  at  the  very  first  volley.  His  only  words  were, 
"  Brother  Cally,  they  have  killed  me." 

The  commandant  of  the  post  was  Colonel  Hanson,  a  brother 
of  General  Hanson,  who  had  fallen  on  our  side  at  Murfrees- 
boro'.  He  had  behaved  with  extraordinary  gallantry.  When 
a  surrender  was  demanded  by  Morgan,  at  his  first  approach, 
Colonel  Hanson  quietly  remarked,  "  If  it  was  any  other  day 
he  might  consider  the  demand,  but  the  4th  of  July  was  a  bad 
day  to  talk  about  surrender,  and  he  must,  therefore,  decline." 
His  command  had  been  raised  in  the  heart  of  the  Blue  Grass 
region,  and  among  them  were  brothers  and  other  near  relatives 
of  Morgan's  own  men.  This  unnatural  encounter  between 
men  of  the  same  blood  and  same  family — a  painful  incident 
of  all  the  Kentucky  campaigns — was  heightened  in  its  horri- 


100  THE  THIRD  YEAR  OF  THE  WAR. 

ble  ferocity  by  the  death  of  General  Morgan's  brother,  a  favor 
ite  of  his  comrades,  who  undertook  to  revenge  his  death,  and 
who  were  with  difficulty  restrained  by  their  officers  from  the 
indiscriminate  slaughter  of  the  enemy  and  pillage  of  the  town. 

It  is  to  be  remarked  that,  in  all  his  expeditions,  General 
Morgan  restrained  his  men  from  all  outrages,  and  was  very 
severe  upon  those  bad  men  inseparable  from  adventures  of  his 
sort,  and  who  accompanied  them  simply  for  plunder.  But  the 
day  before  the  Lebanon  fight,  a  terrible  incident  had  occurred 
in  his  little  army.  An  officer  of*  the  expedition,  whose  journal 
lies  before  us,  writes  of  this  occurrence :  "  About  three  o'clock, 
as  I  rode  on  about  forty  yards  in  advance,  I  heard  the  general 
exclaim  something  in  a  very  excited  tone  which  I  could  not 
understand  ;  and  heard  at  the"  same  time  the  report  of  a  pistol. 
I  turned,  and,  great  God !  to  my  horror,  I  saw  Captain  Ma- 
gennis  falling  from  his  horse,  with  the  blood  rushing  out  of  his 
mouth  and  breast.  His  only  remark  was,  '  Let  me  down  easy.' 
In  another  moment  his  spirit  had  fled.  He  was  killed  by 
Captain  Murphy,  because  Magennis,  by  the  direction  of  Gen 
eral  Morgan,  had  ordered  Murphy  to  restore  a  watch  taken 
from  a  prisoner." 

Leaving  Lebanon,  Morgan  proceeded  to  Bardstown,  where 
lie  captured  some  cavalry,  advanced  then  upon  the  Louisville 
and  Nashville  railrood,  and  next  reached  Garnettsville,  when 
a  feint  was  made  upon  the  city  of  Louisville,  whilst  prepara 
tions  were  on  foot  to  effect  a  crossing  of  the  Ohio  river.  A 
scouting  party  was  sent  to  the  river  at  Brandensburg,  at  which 
point  two  steamers  were  captured.  Here  the  command  effected 
a  crossing  of  the  river,  after  a  severe  fight  with  the  enemy. 
They  captured  about  one  hundred  Home  Guards,  one  rifled 
twelve-pounder  piece,  and  successfully  repulsed  two  gunboats. 

On  the  8th  of  July,  Morgan's  little  command  stood  on  the 
soil  of  Indiana.  He  immediately  took  up  the  line  of  march 
for  the  town  of  Corydon,  where  he  captured  about  600  militia 
and  some  few  regular  soldiers.  Salem  was  the  next  point 
which  invited  his  attention,  where  an  immense  amount  of 
damage  was  inflicted  upon  the  enemy  by  the  destruction  of 
railroad  property,  bridges,  depots,  stores,  &c. 

The  expedition  from  this  point  visited  the  interior  of  the 
State,  and  was  enabled  to  find  any  quantity  of  work  to  per- 


THE  THIRD  YKAR  OF  THE  WAR.  101 

form,  which  embraced  the  destruction  of  vast  amounts  of  pub 
lic  property,  such  as  railroads,  bridges,  depots,  and  govern 
ment  stores  generally. 

At  Salem,  Morgan  first  learned  from  the  telegraph  wires 
of  the  tremendous  excitement  his  unexampled  invasion  had 
created,  and  the  station  and  numbers  of  the  enemy  around  for 
the  hunt.  He  discovered  that  Indianapolis  was  running  over 
with  them — that  New  Albany  contained  10,000 — that  3,000 
had  just  arrived  at  Mitchell — and,  in  fact,  25,000  men  were 
armed  and  ready  to  meet  the  "  bloody  invader." 

Morgan  moved  rapidly  forward  to  Lexington,  thence  to  Yer- 
non,  and  from  Yernon  to  Yersailles,  scattering  destruction  and 
dismay  along  the  route.  Near  the  latter  place,  an  amusing 
and  characteristic  incident  occurred.  A  Presbyterian  chap 
lain,  in  Morgan's  command,  captured  an  entire  company  of 
militia.  He  was  moving  ahead,  when  he  found  that  he  had 
flanked  the  advance,  and  run  upon  a  full  company  of  State 
militia.  Imitating  his  commander's  demeanor,  he  boldly  rode 
up  to  the  company  and  inquired  for  the  captain.  Being  in 
formed  that  there  was  a  dispute  as  to  who  should  lead  them, 
he  volunteered  his  services,  expatiating  largely  upon  the  part 
he  had  played  as  an  Indiana  captain  at  Shiloh,  and  was  soon 
elected  to  lead  the  valiant  Hoosiers  against  "  the  invading 
rebs."  Twenty  minutes  spent  in  drilling,  inspired  complete 
confidence;  and  when  the  advance  guard  of  Morgan's  com 
mand  had  passed  without  Captain  P.  permitting  the  Hoosiers 
to  fire,  he  ordered  them  into  the  road,  and  surrendered  them 
to  our  command.  Crest-fallen,  indeed,  were  the  Yankees  ;  but 
General  Morgan  treated  them  kindly,  and,  returning  to  them 
their  guns,  advised  them  to  go  home  and  not  come  hunting 
such  game  again,  as  they  had  every  thing  to  lose  and  nothing 
to  gain  by  it. 

Leaving  the  State  of  Indiana,  General  Morgan  struck  the 
Ohio  line  at  a  place  called  Harrison.  Here  he  completely 
destroyed  a  very  long  bridge  of  great  strength  and  value.  A 
feint  was  here  made  upon  Cincinnati.  The  whole  Ohio  coun 
try,  in  this  direction,  is  chequered  over  with  railroads,  and  the 
attention  of  the  expedition  was  particularly  directed  to  these. 
Immense  damage  was  thus  inflicted  upon  the  enemy.  The 
Mississippi  and  Ohio  railroad  was  greatly  injured.  The  coin- 


102  THE  THIRD  YEAR  OF  THE  WAR. 

mand  approached  within  eight  miles  of  the  city  of  Cincinnati, 
and  it  is  said  that  some  of  Morgan's  scouts  were  within  the 
suburbs  of  the  city. 

On  the  march,  the  command  bore  to  the  left  of  the  city, 
striking  the  little  Miami  railroad,  capturing  a  valuable  train 
of  cars  soon  after  reaching  the  road,  together  with  about  200 
Federal  soldiers.  The  train  was,  of  course,  destroyed,  which 
was  the  usual  disposition  made  of  such  captures. 

After  passing  Cincinnati,  Morgan  next  went  in  the  direc 
tion  of  Camp  Denison,  upon  which  point  he  made  another 
feint  for  the  purpose  of  deceiving  the  enemy,  who  were  at  this 
time  harassing  him  as  he  proceeded.  Leaving  the  neighbor 
hood  of  Camp  Denison,  he  proceeded  through  the  interior  of 
the  State,  operating  upon  an  extensive  scale,  in  destroying  the 
railroads  in  which  that  section  abounds. 

Upon  arriving  near  the  town  of  Pomeroy,  another  feint  was 
here  resorted  to.  The  numerous  roads  in  this  section  were 
generally  very  effectively  blockaded,  and  much  difficulty  was 
experienced  in  overcoming  these  obstacles.  Near  Pomeroy 
General  Morgan  encountered  a  force  of  the  enemy  of  several 
thousand  men,  consisting  of  infantry,  cavalry,  and  artillery. 
"Whilst  the  skirmishers  were  engaged  at  this  point,  the  main 
body  of  the  command  moved  around  the  town  to  the  left,  with 
the  view  of  reaching  the  river,  which  they  accomplished  about 
daylight  on  the  morning  of  the  18th  of  July,  at  Buffington 
Island.  Here  the  enemy  came  up  with  them,  with  a  strong 
force,  assisted  by  gunboats  in  the  river,  which  prevented  a 
crossing  at  this  point. 

The  rear  guard  of  the  expedition  held  the  enemy  in  check, 
whilst  the  main  body  was  enabled  to  move  off  from  the  river, 
to  a  point  further  up,  called  Belleville.  Here  another  effort 
was  made  to  cross.  About  two  hundred  of  the  command  had 
succeeded  in  crossing  the  river  when  the  gunboats  again  made 
their  appearance,  and  also  a  force  of  cavalry  and  infantry, 
evidently  the  same  which  had  opposed  them  at  Buffington. 
Only  two  men  were  drowned  of  the  number  which  attempted 
to  cross  the  river.  Morgan  being  thus  prevented  from  crossing 
his  whole  command,  those  who  effected  a  crossing  succeeded 
in  keeping  the  gunboats  at  bay  until  he  could  remove  his  force 
to  a  point  higher  up  the  river.  The  enemy  claimed  to  have 


THE  THIRD  TEAK  OF  THE  WAR.  103 

taken  seventeen  hundred  prisoners  in  the  running  fight.  At 
any  rate,  the  few  hundred  who  had  crossed  the  Ohio,  thus 
cut  off  from  the  main  body,  had  no  other  alternative  left  them 
but  to  make  their  way  as  they  best  could  to  the  Confederate 
lines,  which  they  succeeded  in  doing — passing  through  the 
mountains  of  West  Virginia  to  Lewisburg,  near  which  place 
they  encamped. 

Morgan,  and  about  two  hundred  of  his  men  had  broken 
through  the  enemy's  lines,  on  the  north  side  of  the  Ohio.  He 
had  by  some  means  got  into  a  carriage.  A  Yankee  major  saw 
him,  and,  galloping  up,  reached  for  him.  Morgan  jumped  out 
at  the  other  side  of  the  carriage,  leaped  over  a  fence,  seized 
a  horse,  and  galloped  off  as  fast  as  horse-flesh  could  carry 
him. 

The  fugitive  commander,  with  the  remainder  of  his  scat 
tered  forces,  pressed  three  citizens  of  Salineville  into  their 
service  as  guides,  and  continued  their  flight  on  the  New  Lisbon 
road.  One  of  the  impressed  guides  made  his  escape  and  rode 
back,  conveying  intelligence  of  the  route  taken,  which  it  was 
believed  was  with  the  ultimate  design  of  reaching  the  Ohio 
river  higher  up.  Forces  were  immediately  despatched  from 
Wellesville  to  head  him  off,  whilst  another  force  followed  hotly 
in  his  rear,  and  a  strong  militia  force  from  "New  Lisbon  came 
down  to  meet  him. 

About  two  o'clock,  in  the  afternoon,  these  various  detach 
ments  closed  in  around  Morgan  in  the  vicinity  of  West  Point, 
about  midway  between  New  Lisbon  and  Wellesville.  The 
Confederates  were  driven  to  a  bluff  from  which  there  was  no 
escape,  except  by  fighting  their  way  through  or  leaping  from 
a  lofty  and  almost  perpendicular  precipice.  Finding  them 
selves  thus  cooped,  Morgan  surrendered  himself  and  the  rem 
nant  of  his  command. 

We  shall  have  occasion  elsewhere  to  refer  to  the  enemy's 
treatment  of  this  distinguished  captive.  It  is  sufficient  to  con 
clude  for  the  present  our  narrative  of  this  remarkable  expedition 
to  say,  that  its  brave  and  generous  leader  and-  his  officers  were 
confined  in  felons'  cells  in  the  Ohio  Penitentiary ;  were  sub 
jected  to  cruelties  at  which  the  blood  runs  cold  ;  and  that  on 
the  20th  day  of  November,  Morgan  and  six  of  his  officers 
escaped  from  the  confinement  and  torture  of  their  infamous 


104 


THE    Til  HID    YEAR    OF    THE    WAK. 


prison.  They  had  dug  out  of  their  cells  with  small  knives, 
after  weeks  of  constant  toil.  Morgan  left  behind  to  his  enemy 
an  account  of  his  toil  and  escape,  "with  two  small  knives," 
with  this  legend  :  "  La  patience  Jest  amere,  mais  son  fruit  es 
ioux"  "  Patience  is  bitter,  but  its  fruit  is  sweet." 

So  far  from  Morgan's  expedition  being  accounted  a  failure, 
on  account  of  its  termination  in  a  surrender,  it  is  to  be  taken 
as  one  of  the  most  fruitful  and  brilliant  of  Confederate  suc 
cesses.  There  were  persons  who  accused  him  of  rashness  in 
crossing  the  Ohio.  But  those  who  preferred  this  flippant 
accusation  probably  did  not  know  that  although  the  passage 
of  the  Ohio  was  not,  at  the  outset,  a  part  of  General  Morgan's 
programme,  it.  created  an  important  diversion  of  Burnside's 
army,  large  detachments  'of  which  were  drawn  after  Morgan 
into  and  through.  Kentucky ;  prevented  the  Yankee  general 
from  marching  on  Knoxville  -and  getting  in  rear  of  Bragg's 
army,  then 'menaced  -in  front  by  Rosecrans,  at  Shelby ville; 
thus  disconcerted  the  Yankee  campaign  in  the  West,  and  de 
layed  its  operations  for  many  valuable  weeks. 

It  is  true  that  Morgan  lost  about  two  thousand  prisoners. 
But  for  this  number  added  to  the  Yankee  exchange  list,  he  had 
exacted  an  immense  and  brilliant  compensation.  With  twenty- 
five  hundred  men  he  traversed  two  enormous  States  from 
end  to  end — occupied  their  towns  almost  at  pleasure — cut 
their  principal  arteries  of  communication,  burnt  depots,  de 
stroyed  engines,  sunk  steamboats  innumerable.  He  threw 
several  millions  of  people  into  frantic  consternation  for  the 
safety  of  their  property,  turned  entire  populations  into  fugi 
tives,  and  compelled  several  thousand  men  to  leave  their  occu 
pations  for  weeks  and  go  under  arms— only  as  an  equivalent 
to  him  and  his  twenty-five  hundred  troops.  He  paroled  near 
six  thousand  Yankees,  they  obligating  themselves  not  to  take 
up  arms  during  the  war.  He  destroyed  thirty-four  important 
bridges,  destroying  the  track  in  sixty  places.  His  loss  was  by 
no  means  slight:  twenty-eight  commissioned  officers  killed, 
thirty-five  wounded,  and  two  hundred  and  fifty  men  killed  and 
wounded.  By  the  Yankee  accounts  he  killed  more  than  two 
hundred,  wounded  at  least  three  hundred  and  fifty,  and  cap 
tured,  as  before  stated,  near  six  thousand.  The  damage  to 
railroads,  steamboats,  and  bridges,  added  to  the  destruction 


THE    THIKD   YEAR    OF   THE   WAR. 


105 


of  public  stores  and  depots,  was  not  less  than  ten  millions  of 
dollars. 

This  brilliant  expedition  taught  Confederates  the  value  of  ad 
venture.  Want  of  enterprise  had  been  the  curse  of  the  South 
in  war  as  in  peace ;  and  the  counsels  of  the  war  in  the  Confed 
eracy  had  been  too  much  to  the  effect  that  it  must  do  nothing 
but  parry — that  it  must  never  presume  to  thrust.  However 
unwelcome  the  ultimate  misfortune  of  General  Morgan,  it 
did  not  rob  his  expedition  of  its  glory,  or  its  profit  to  the 
Confederacy. 


LIBRARY 

VKUSITY   OF 

CALIFORNIA 


106  THE  THIRD  YEAR  OF  THE  WAR. 


CHAPTER  Y. 

r  Contrast  between  our  Military  Fortunes  in  the  East  and  in  the  West. — Some 
Reasons  for  our  Success  in  Virginia. — Her  Hearty  Co-operation  with  the  Confederate 
Authorities. — Her  Contributions  to  the  War. — General  Bragg's  Situation  in  Tennes 
see. — Confederate  criticisms  on  General  Kosecrans. — Opinion  of  the  "  Chattanooga 
Eebel." — An  Extensive  Movement  Contemplated  by  Eoseorans. — Bragg's  Retreat  to 
Chattanooga. — The  Yankees  on  a  Double  Line  of  Operatioas. — Buckner's  Evacuation 
of  Knoxville.  THE  SURRENDER  OF  CUMBERLAND  GAP. — President  Davis'  Comment 
on  the  Surrender. — THE  BATTLES  OF  CHICKAMAUGA. — Braggs'  Evacuation  of  Chatta 
nooga. — Topography  of  the  Battle-field. — Thomas's  Column  of  Yankees  in  McLemore's 
Cove. — Disobedience  of  Orders  by  Lieutenant-general  Hill  of  the  Confederates. — 
Bragg's  Orders  to  Lieutenant-general  Polk. — Two  Opportunities  Lost.  Note: 
Bragg's  Secret  and  Official  Eeport  of  the  Miscarriage  of  His  Plans.— The  First  Day's 
Engagement  on  the  Chickamauga. — Second  Day. — General  Polk's  Fight  on  our 
Eight. — Longstreet's  Successful  Attack  on  the  Left. — The  Grand  Charge. — Rout  of 
the  Enemy. — Longstreet's  Message  to  Bragg. — Forrest  Up  a  Tree. — Bragg  Declines  to 
Pursue. — His  Hesitation  and  Error. — His  Movement  upon  Chattanooga. — Boast  of 
Eosecrans. — An  Empty  Victory  for  the  Confederates. — Bragg's  Awkward  Pause. — 
Discussions  of  the  Campaign. — His  Supposed  Investment  of  Chattanooga. — Two 
Blunders  of  the  Confederate  Commander. — Chickamauga  a  Second  Edition  of  Bull 
Enn.  Note  :  Observations  of  a  General  Officer  of  the  Confederate  States  Army  on 
the  Campaign  in  the  West. 

TF;NNESSSEE  was  a  conspicuous  theatre  of  the  war,  but  one  of 
strange  misfortune  to  the  Confederates.  We  have  in  preceding 
volumes  of  this  work,  and  at  different  periods  in  the  history  of 
the  war,  referred  to  the  marked  and  striking  contrast  between 
our  military  fortunes  in  the  East  and  in  the  West.  True,  the 
picture  was  not  entirely  free  from  lights  and  shadows  on  either 
side.  Roan  ok  e  Island  somewhat  marred  the  one,  while  the  first 
day  of  Shiloh,  the  brilliant  forays  of  Morgan,  Wheeler,  and 
Forrest,  and  the  unexpected  success  with  which,  for  more  than 
a  year,  Yicksburg  defied  three  successive  expeditions,  until  an 
evil  star  shed  its  malignant  influence  over  her,  lighted  up  the 
sombre  tints  of  the  other.  The  steady  tendency  and  actual  re 
sult  on  each  side  was,  however,  clear  and  unmistakable.  Two 
years  ago  our  army  was  encamped  at  Bowling  Green,  and  our 
batteries,  on  the  beetling  cliff  of  Columbus,  scowled  defiance 
to  Cairo.  From  the  time  General  Johnston  fell  back  from 


THE  THIRD  YEAR  OF  THE  WAR.  107 

Bowling  Green,  a  dark  and  bloody  struggle  ensued,  which  cul 
minated  in  the  disasters  of  Bragg's  Kentucky  campaign.  The 
battle  of  Murfreesboro',  in  which  we  won  a  brilliant  victory,  on 
the  31st  of  December,  1862,  afterwards  proved  but  a  drawn 
battle,  and  on  the  night  of  the  2d  of  January  following,  the 
Confederates  had  retreated  to  Tullahoma. 

The  remarkable  and  persistent  contrast  between  our  military 
affairs  in  the  West  and  those  east  of  the  Alleghanies,  especially 
on  the  grand  theatre  of  Virginia,  affords  a  curious  study  for 
the  future  and  elaborate  historian  of  the  war.  But  some  par 
tial  explanation  of  it  is  to  be  found  in  obvious  circumstances. 
The  army  of  Virginia  was  undoubtedly  superior  in  composition 
to  that  of  the  West.  The  Virginia  troops — it  may  be  said  with 
out  invidiousness,  where  there  is  so  much  of  common  glory  for 
every  member  of  the  Confederate  army — were  especially  com 
plimented  by  General  Lee  for  a  remarkable  union  of  spirit  and 
tractability^  which  made  them  the  best  soldiery  in  the  world. 
And  it  may  be  said  emphatically,  that  no  other  State,  whose 
soil  was  the  theatre  of  war,  had  exhibited  such  happy  accord, 
and  such  thorough  and  generous  co-operation  with  the  Confed 
erate  authority  as  had  Virginia.  It  is  in  the  circumstance  of 
this  zealous  and  devoted  co-operation  of  Virginia  with  the  Con 
federate  authority — in  contrast  with  the  conduct  of  certain, 
other  States,  in  whose  borders  was  pitched  the  theatre  of  war — 
that  we  shall  especially  find  an  explanation  for  those  triumphs 
of  the  common  arms  of  the  South,  which  so  frequently  and  so 
uniformly  graced  her  soil. 

No  embarrassments  of  party  politics,  no  indecent  bickerings 
of  demagogues,  chilled  the  zeal  of  Virginia,  or  divided  her  ef 
forts  in  the  war.  From  the  beginning  of  the  contest  she  had 
poured  out  a  lavish  stream  of  contributions  to  every  necessity 
of  the  general  government.  In  the  fall  of  1863,  it  was  officially 
reported  in  her  legislature,  that  she  had  already  furnished 
102,915*  soldiers  to  the  Confederate  service,  and  that,  in  ad 
dition,  thirty  thousand  conscripts  had  just  passed  through  the 
camp  of  instruction,  and  that  she  had  issued  in  this  time, 
103,840  muskets,  399  pieces  of  cannon,  and  other  arms  in  pro 
portion. 

*  Statement  of  the  Number  of  Troops  Furnished  the  Confederate  States  ly  the 


108  THE   THIRD    YEAR   OF   THE    WAR. 

In  adverting  to  the  fortunes  involved  by  the  fall  of  Ticks- 
burgh,  we  have  already  said,  that  General  Bragg's  army  in 
Tennessee  had  been  considerably  weakened  by  drafts  upon  it 
to  reinforce  the  lines  in  the  Southwest.  He  was  in  a  critical 
condition  at  Tullahoma.  Rosecrans  had  nearly  double  his  num 
bers  in  his  front,  and  Burnside,  who  commanded  what  the 
Yankees  called  the  Army  of  the  Cumberland,  was  in  a  position, 
by  an  advance  towards  Knoxville,  to  threaten  his  rear. 

Rosecrans,  whose  name  is  coupled  with  so  much  of  the  mil 
itary  history  of  the  West,  enjoyed  a  divided  reputation  in  the 
Confederacy,  being  esteemed  by  many  as  the  most  skilful  and 
formidable  of  Yankee  generals,  and  by  others,  as  a  lucky  mil 
itary  adventurer,  who  would  soon  run  his  career  of  good 
fortune.  In  the  early  stages  of  the  war,  he  had  made  great 
reputation  by  his  successes  over  Lee  in  Western  Virginia,  the 
latter  being  taken  quite  out  of  his  element,  in  a  contracted 
mountain  warfare,  and  being  easily  bewildered  by  a  man  whov 
as  an  itinerary  speculator,  a  peddler  in  "  oil  springs,"  had  made 
himself  minutely  familiar  with  these  mountains.  He  was  now 
at  the  head  of  the  class  in  President  Lincoln's  academy,  for  the 
graduation  of  young  and  sudden  field-marshals.  In  the  De 
partment  of  Tennessee  his  star  had  been  in  the  ascendant ;  he 
had  yet  to  sustain  a  defeat ;  but  such  fortune,  said  those  who 
disputed  his  generalship,  was  simply  that  likely  to  attend  the 
march  of  a  much  superior  army  of  well-disciplined  western 
troops,  against  a  small  army  of  brave^  and  patient,  but  badly 
handled  Confederates.  The  Chattanooga  Rebel  quoted  against 


State  of  Virginia,  as  taken  from  the  first  Rotts  on  file  in  the  Adjutant  and 
Inspector-general's  Office. 

Sixty-four  regiments  infantry 52,496 

Twenty  regiments  cavalry 14,175 

Two  regiments  artillery 1,779 

Twenty-eight  battalions,  cavalry,  infantry  and  artillery. .  11.717 

Nine  battalions  artillery,  Army  Northern  Virginia 4,500 

Two  hundred  and  fourteen  unattached  companies,  artil 
lery,  infantry  and  cavalry 18,248 

Total  number  of  men 102,915 

The  above  statement  does  not  embrace  the  recruits  or  conscripts  furnished 
by  the  State  of  Virginia. 
October,  1868. 


THE  THIRD  YEAR  OF  THE  WAR.  109 

him  a  vulgar,  but  trite  axiom,  among  the  backwoodsmen  of 
Tennessee :  "  There  is  no  telling  the  luck  of  a  lousy  calf— he 
lives  all  the  winter,  and  dies  in  the  spring." 

Rosecrans  was  now  to  test  his  generalship  by  one  of  the 
most  extensive  movements  in  the  West:  the  occupation  of 
East  Tennessee,  and  a  movement  thence  into  the  heart  of  the 
cotton  States.  This  military  Hercules,  said  a  Northern  paper, 
had,  of  all  others,  been  selected  to  "  drive  a  wedge  into  the 
centre  of  the  Confederacy." 

Since  his  retreat  to  Tullahoma  General  Bragg  had  advanced 
to  "Wartrace  and  Shelby  ville,  and  was  apparently  ready  to  give 
the  enemy  battle*  A  portion  of  his  forces  having  been  with 
drawn  to  Mississippi,  he  considered  that  he  was  left  as  a  mere 
army  of  observation.  -The  enemy  at  last  succeeded  in  surprising 
our  forces  at  Liberty  and  Hoover's  Gaps  by  a  flank  movement, 
and  General  Bragg,  to  save  his  army,  fell  back,  on  the  27th  of 
June,  to  Chattanooga.  The  enemy  followed  at  leisure  to  the 
banks  of  the  Tennessee. 

The  enemy's  advance  on  Chattanooga  was  in  two  columns, 
on  a  double  line  of  operations — Rosecrans  moving  on  Chatta 
nooga,  and  Burnside  moving  on  Knoxville.  It  was  thought  to 
be  necessary  that  the  exposed  left  flank  of  Rosecrans'  army 
should  be  covered  while  he  made  a  right  swinging  movement 
on  Chattanooga,  and  this  appeared  to  be  the  whole  purpose  of 
the  co-operation  of  Burnside's  column.  The  possession  of 
Knoxville,  under  the  circumstances,  was  not  supposed  to  be  of 
vital  moment,  for,  Chattanooga  in  the  enemy's  possession, 
Knoxville  and  the  whole  line  was  turned  and  fell  of  its  weight. 

On  the  20th  of  August,  it  was  ascertained  certainly  that 
Rosecrans  had  crossed  the  mountains  to  Stevenson  and  Bridge 
port.  His  force  of  effective  infantry  and  artillery  amounted 
to  fully  70,000,  divided  into  four  corps.  About  the  same  time 
General  Burnside  advanced  from  Kentucky  towards  Knoxville, 
East  Tennessee,  with  a  force  estimated  by  the  General  com 
manding  that  department  at  over  25,000.  In  view  of  the  great 
superiority  of  numbers  brought  against  him,  General  Buckner 
concluded  to  evacuate  Knoxville,  and  with  a  force  of  about 
5000  infantry  and  artillery,  and  his  cavalry,  took  position  in 
the  vicinity  of  London.  Two  brigades  of  his  command,  Frazier's 
at  Cumberland  Gap  and  Jackson's  in  Northeast  Tennessee, 


110  THE  THIKD  YEAR  OF  THE  WAR. 

were  thus  severed  from  us.  The  enemy  having  already  ob 
tained  a  lodgment  in  East  Tennessee  by  another  route,  the 
continued  occupation  of  Cumberland  Gap  became  very  hazard 
ous  to  the  garrison  and  comparatively  unimportant  to  us.  Its 
evacuation  was  accordingly  ordered,  but  on  the  appeal  of  its 
commander,  stating  his  resources  and  ability  for  defence,  favor 
ably  endorsed  by  Major-General  Buckner,  the  orders  were 
suspended  on  the  31st  of  August.  The  main  body  of  our  army 
was  encamped  near  Chattanooga,  whilst  the  cavalry  force, 
much  reduced  and  enfeebled  by  long  service  on  short  rations, 
was  recruiting  in  the  vicinity  of  Rome,  Georgia. 


THE  SURRENDER  OF  CUMBERLAND  GAP. 

We  may  anticipate  our  narrative  to  say  here  that  Cumber 
land  Gap  was  surrendered  on  the  9th  of  September  by  General 
Frazier ;  a  garrison,  consisting  of  four  regiments,  about  two 
thousand  men,  and  fourteen  pieces  of  artillery  being  uncon 
ditionally  surrendered  to  the  enemy  without  firing  a  gun. 

The  first  demand  for  a  surrender  was  made  on  the  5th  by 
the  Yankee  General  Shackelford ;  and  Colonel  De  Courcy 
having  come  up  with  a  brigade  on  the  Kentucky  side,  renewed 
the  demand  on  the  evening  of  the  9th  September.  General 
Frazier  replied  under  flag  of  truce,  asking  De  Courcy  the 
number  of  forces  to  which  he  was  ordered  to  surrender.  De 
Courcy  replied  nearly  twelve  o'clock  at  night,  refusing  to  give 
the  number  of  forces  under  his  command,  stating  that  it  was 
from  motives  entirely  disconnected  with  the  attack  upon  the 
gap  that  he  did  so.  General  Frazier  then  refused  to  surrender, 
and  it  was  understood  that  the  fight  would  open  at  twelve 
o'clock  the  next  day.  A  council  of  the  commanding  officers  of 
regiments  was  called,  which  resulted  in  the  refusal  of  all  to  be 
surrendered.  A  majority  preferred  the  risk  of  cutting  their 
way  throngh  the  Yankee  lines  to  being  surrendered  on  any 
terms.  A  fight  was  therefore  confidently  expected.  Near 
twelve  o'clock  on  Wednesday,  the  9th,  when  all  was  in  anxious 
expectation  for  the  fight  to  open,  General  Frazier  received  from 
Burnside,  under  flag  of  truce,  a  demand  for  the  unconditional 
surrender  of  himself  and  his  command.  Very  soon  after  its 


THE  THIRD  TEAR  OF  THE  WAR.  Ill 

reception,  one  of  General  Frazier's  aid-de-camps  came  in  great 
haste  down  the  mountain  and  ordered  the  battle-flag  down, 
and  a  white  one  to  be  hoisted  in  its  stead.* 

This  surrender  was  declared  by  the  Richmond  Dispatch  to 
be  "  one  of  the  most  disgraceful  occurrences  of  the  war."  In 
a  message  to  Congress  President  Davis  said  of  it :  "  The  coun 
try  was  painfully  surprised  by  the  intelligence  that  the  officer 
in  command  of  Cumberland  Gap  had  surrendered  that  import 
ant  and  easily  defensible^pass  without  firing  a  shot,  upon  the 
summons  of  a  force  still  believed  to  have  been  inadequate  to 
its  reduction,  and  when  reinforcements  were  within  supporting 
distance,  and  had  been  ordered  to  his  aid.  The  entire  garri 
son,  including  the  commander,  being  still  held  prisoners  by  the 
enemy,  I  am  unable  to  suggest  any  explanation  of  this  disas 
ter,  which  laid  open  eastern  Tennessee  and  south-western  Vir 
ginia  to  hostile  operations,  and  broke  the  line  of  communica 
tion  between  the  seat  of  government  and  middle  Tennes- 


*  The  following  communication  with  respect  to  this  surrender  was  published 
in  the  Richmond  newspapers  from  Major  McDowell,  one  of  the  officers  of  the 
garrison. 

"  Various  statements  have  been  made  in  regard  to  the  conduct  of  the  troops 
composing  the  command  at  Cumberland  Gap.  I  assert  most  positively  that  I 
have  yet  to  see  troops  in  finer  spirits,  or  more  determined  to  hold  their  ground 
than  the  troops  in  the  gap.  I  have  learned  that  an  attempt  is  being  made  to 
justify  the  surrender  of  the  gap  upon  the  ground  that  the  troops  in  the  gap 
would  not  fight,  and  that  some  of  them  shouted  when  the  flag  was  ordered 
down.  The  last  charge  was  made  against  the  Sixty-second  North  Carolina  regi 
ment.  The  first  is  false,  and  the  second  not  only  false,  but  is  a  base  and  cowardly 
effort  to  protect  those  that  may  be  guilty  at  the  expense  of  the  innocent,  brave, 
patriotic  and  true.  We  were  surrendered,  then,  to  General  Burnside  on 
Wednesday,  the  9th,  at  4  o'clock  P.  M.  Many  made  their  escape  after  the 
surrender.  We  had  when  we  were  surrendered  provisions  upon  which  we 
could  have  subsisted  thirty  days.  We  had  all  the  ammunition  on  hand  that 
we  had  when  the  gap  was  first  invested.  My  regiment  had  150  rounds  to  the 
man,  and  I  presume  other  regiments  had  the  same.  If  the  surrender  was  a 
matter  of  necessity,  it  was  from  causes  other  than  a  want  of  provisions, 
ammunition,  or  a  willingness  on  the  part  of  the  men  to  do  their  duty." 


112  THE   THIRD   YEAR    OF    THE    WAR. 


THE   BATTLES    OF    CHICKAMAUGA. 

Before  proceeding  to  discuss  those  movements,  by  which  the 
forces  of  Rosecrans  and  of  Bragg  at  last  joined  in  decisive  bat 
tle,  a  topographical  coup  d'azil  is  necessary. 

The  Cumberland  range  is  a  lofty  mass  of  rocks,  separating 
the  waters  which  flow  into  the  Cumberland  from  those  which 
flow  into  the  Tennessee,  and  extending  from  beyond  the  Ken 
tucky  line  in  a  south-westerly  direction  nearly  to  Athens, 
Alabama.  The  Sequatchie  Yalley  is  along  the  river  of  that 
name,  and  is  a  canon  or  deep  cut  splitting  the  Cumberland 
range  parallel  to  its  length. 

Chattanooga  commands  the  southern  entrance  into  Tennes 
see,  and  is  one  of  the  great  gateways  through  mountains  to 
the  champaign  counties  of  Georgia  and  Alabama.  It  is  situ 
ated  on  the  Tennessee  river,  at  the  mouth  of  the  Chattanooga 
Yalley — a  valley  following  the  course  of  the  Chattanooga 
creek,  and  formed  by  Lookout  Mountain  and  Missionary 
Ridge.  The  former  is  a  vast  palisade  of  rocks,  rising  twenty- 
four  hundred  feet  above  the  level  of  the  sea,  in  abrupt  rocky 
cliffs,  from  a  steep,  wooded  base.  East  of  Missionary  Ridge, 
and  running  parallel  with  it,  is  another  valley — Chickamauga 
Yalley — following  the  course  of  Chickamauga  creek,  which, 
with  the  Chattanooga  creek,  discharges  its  waters  into  the 
Tennessee  river — the  first  above,  and  the  last  below  the  town 
of  Chattanooga,  and  has  with  it  a  common  source  in  McLe- 
more's  Cove — the  common  head  of  both  valleys,  and  formed 
by  Lookout  Mountain  on  the  west,  and  Pigeon  Mountain  to 
the  east.  Wills'  Yalley  is  a  narrow  valley  lying  to  the  west 
of  Chattanooga,  formed  by  Lookout  Mountain  and  Sand 
Mountain,  and  traversed  by  a  railroad,  which  takes  its  name 
from  the  valley,  and  which,  branching  from  the  Nashville  and 
Chattanooga  Railroad,  where  the  latter  crosses  the  valley,  has 
its  present  terminus  at  Trenton,  and  future  at  Tuscaloosa, 
Alabama.  The  wagon-road  from  Chattanooga  to  Rome, 
known  as  the  Lafayette  road,  crosses  Missionary  Ridge  into 
Chickamauga  Yalley  at  Rossville,  and,  proceeding  in  a  south 
westerly  direction,  crosses  Chickamauga  creek,  eleven  miles 
from  Chattanooga,  at  Lee  and  Gordon's  Mills,  and,  passing  to 


THE    THIRD   YEAR    OF   THE    WAR. 

the  east  of  Pigeon  Mountain,  goes  through  Lafayette,  distant 
some  twenty-two  miles  from  Chattanooga,  and  Summerville 
within  twenty-five  miles  of  Rome. 

Immediately  after  crossing  the  mountains  to  the  Tennessee, 
the  enemy  threw  a  corps  by  the  way  of  Sequatchie  Valley  to 
strike  the  rear  of  General  Buckner's  command,  whilst  Burn- 
side  occupied  him  in  front.  One  division,  already  ordered  to 
his  assistance,  proving  insufficient  to  meet  the  force  concen 
trating  on  him,  Buckner  was  directed  to  withdraw  to  the 
Hiawassee  with  his  infantry,  artillery,  and  supplies,  and  to 
hold  his  cavalry  in  front,  to  check  the  enemy's  advance.  As 
soon  as  this  change  was  made,  the  corps  threatening  his  rear 
was  withdrawn,  and  the  enemy  commenced  a  movement  in 
force  against  our  left  and  rear.  On  the  last  of  August  it  be 
came  known  that  he  had  crossed  his  main  force  over  the  Ten 
nessee  river  at  or  near  Caperton's  Ferry,  the  most  accessible 
point  from  Stevenson.  By  a  direct  route,  he  was  now  as  near 
our  main  depot  of  supplies  as  we  were,  and  our  whole  line  of 
communication  was  exposed,  while  his  own  was  partially 
secured  by  mountains  and  the  river.  By  the  timely  arrival  of 
two  small  divisions  from  Mississippi,  our  effective  force, 
exclusive  of  cavalry,  was  now  a  little  over  thirty-five  thousand, 
with  which  it  was  determined  to  strike  on  the  first  favorable 
opportunity.  Closely  watched  by  our  cavalry,  which  had 
been  brought  forward,  it  was  soon  ascertained  that  the 
enemy's  general  movements  were  towards  our  left  and  rear,  in 
the  direction  of  Dalton  and  Rome,  keeping  Lookout  Mountain 
between  us.  The  nature  of  the  country,  and  the  want  of  sup 
plies  in  it,  with  the  presence  of  Burnside's  force  on  our  right, 
rendered  a  movement  on  the  enemy's  rear,  with  our  inferior 
force,  extremely  hazardous,  if  not  impracticable.  It  was  now, 
therefore,  determined  to  meet  him  in  front  whenever  he  should 
emerge  from  the  mountain  gorges.  To  do  this  and  hold  Chat 
tanooga  was  impossible,  without-  such  a  division  of  our  small 
force  as  to  endanger  both  parts.  Accordingly,  our  troops 
were  put  in  motion  on  the  7th  and  8th  of  September,  and  took 
position  from  Lee  and  Gordon's  Mills  to  Lafayette,  on  the  road 
leading  south  from  Chattanooga,  and  fronting  the  east  slope  of 
Lookout  Mountain. 

On  Monday,  September  7th,  Lieutenant-general  D.  H.  Hill 

8 


114:  THE    THIRD    YEAR    OF   THE    WAR. 

was  ordered  to  move  with  his  corps  to  Lafayette,  and  General 
Polk  to  Lee  and  Gordon's  Mills,  and  Major  general  Buckner, 
with  the  army  of  East  Tennessee,  and  Major-general  Walker, 
with  his  division  from  the  army  of  Mississippi,  to  concentrate 
at  Lafayette,  and  Brigadier-general  Pegram  to  cover  the  rail 
road  with  his  cavalry.  These  dispositions  having  been  made 
of  the  Confederate  forces,  Major-general  Crittenden  command 
ing  the  left  wing  of  Rosecrans'  army,  which  had  not  moved 
with  the  right  and  centre,  but  had  been  left  in  the  Sequatchie 
Yalley,  crossed  the  Tennessee  river  at  the  mouth  of  Battle 
creek,  and  moved  upon  Chattanooga.  Major-general  McCook, 
commanding  the  right  wing,  was  thrown  forward  to  threaten 
Rome,  and  the  corps  of  Major-general  Thomas  was  put  in 
motion  over  Lookout  Mountain,  in  the  direction  of  Lafay 
ette. 

During  the  9th  of  September  it  was  ascertained  that  a  col 
umn  of  the  enemy  had  crossed  Lookout  Mountain  into  the 
cove  by  the  way  of  Stevens'  and  Cooper's.  Thrown  off  his 
guard  by  our  rapid  movement  apparently  in  retreat,  when  in 
reality  we  had  concentrated  opposite  his  centre,  and  deceived  « 
by  information  from  deserters  and  others  sent  into  his  lines, 
the  enemy  pressed  on  his  columns  to  intercept  us,  and  thus 
exposed  himself  in  detail. 

A  splendid  opportunity  was  now  presented  to  Bragg.  The 
detached  force  in  McLernore's  cove  was  Thomas's  corps.  Be 
ing  immediately  opposite  Lafayette,  at  and  near  which  General 
Bragg  had  all  his  forces  concentrated,  it  was  completely  at  the 
mercy  of  the  latter.  It  was  only  necessary  that  General  Bragg 
should  fall  upon  it  with  such  a  mass  as  would  have  crushed  it ; 
then  turned  down  Chattanooga  Valley,  thrown  himself  in  be 
tween  the  town  and  Crittenden,  and  crushed  him  ;  then  passed 
back  between  Lookout  Mountain  and  the  Tennessee  river  into 
Wills'  Valley,  and  cut  off  McCook's  retreat  to  Bridgeport ; 
thence  moved  along  the  Cumberland  range  into  the  rear  of 
Burnside,  and  disposed  of  him. 

~No  time  was  to  be  lost  in  taking  advantage  of  a  blunder  of 

O  O 

the  enemy,  into  which  he  had  fallen  in  his  stupid  conceit  that 
the  Confederates  were  retreating.  Instant  orders  were  given 
to  Major-general  Hindman  to  prepare  his  division  to  move 
against  Thomas,  and  he  was  informed  that  another  division 


THE  THIRD  YEAK  OF  THE  WAE.  115 

from  Lieutenant-general  D.  H.  Hill's  command,  at  Lafayette, 
would  move  up  to  him  and  co-operate  in  the  attack. 

General  Hill  received  his  orders  on  the  night  of  the  9th. 
He  replied  that  he  could  not  undertake  the  movement ;  that 
the  orders  were  impracticable ;  that  Cleburne,  who  commanded 
one  of  his  divisions,  was  sick ;  and  that  both  the  gaps.  Dug 
and  Catlett's,  through  which  he  was  required  to  move,  were 
impassable,  having  been  blocked  by  felled  timber. 

Early  the  next  morning,  Hindman  was  promptly  in  position 
to  execute  his  part  of  the  critical  movement.  Disappointed  at 
Hill's  refusal  to  move,  General  Bragg,  with  desperate  haste, 
despatched  an  order  to  Major-general  Buckner  to  move  from 
his  present  position  at  Anderson,  and  execute,  without  delay, 
the  orders  issued  to  Hill. 

It  was  not  until  the  afternoon  of  the  10th,  that  Buckner 
joined  Hindman,  the  two  commands  being  united  near  Davis's 
Cross-roads  in  the  cove.  The  enemy  was  still  in  flagrant 
error  moving  his  three  columns,  with  an  apparent  disposition 
to  form  a  junction  at  or  near  Lafayette.  To  strike  in  detail 
these  isolated  commands,  and  to  fall  upon  Thomas,  who  had 
got  the  enemy's  centre  into  McLemore's  Cove,  such  rapidity 
was  necessary  as  to  surprise  the  enemy  before  he  discovered 
his  mistake. 

Lieutenant-general  Polk  was  ordered  to  Anderson's,  to  cover 
Hind  man's  rear,  who,  at  midnight  of  the  10th  of  September, 
again  received  orders,  at  all  hazards  to  crush  the  enemy's 
centre,  and  cut  his  way  through  to  Lafayette.  The  indomita 
ble  Cleburne,  despite  the  obstructions  in  the  road,  had  moved 
up  to  Dug  Gap  ;  was  in  position  at  daylight ;  and  only  waited 
the  sound  of  Hindman's  guns  to  move  on  the  enemy's  flank 
and  rear. 

Courier  after  courier  sped  from  Dug  Gap  to  urge  Hindman 
on.  But  it  was  too  late.  The  enemy  had  discovered  the  mis 
take  that  had  well-nigh  proved  his  ruin.  He  had  taken  advan 
tage  of  our  delay,  retreated  to  the  mountain  passes ;  and  so  the 
movement  upon  Thomas,  which  promised  such  brilliant  results, 
was  lost  by  an  anachronism  by  which  the  best  laid  military 
schemes  are  so  frequently  defeated. 

But  it  was  not  easy  for  Rosecrans  to  repair  his  error  wholly, 
and  extricate  himself  from  the  meshes  of  a  bad  military  move- 


116  THE  THIRD  YEAK  OF  THE  WAR. 

merit.  The  movement  upon  Thomas  in  McLemore's  Cove  hav 
ing  failed,  he  having  effected  his  escape  up  the  mountain, 
Roseerans,  who,  by  this  time,  had  discovered  Bragg's  where 
abouts,  recalled  MeCook,  into  Wills'  Valley,  and  ordered  him 
to  follow  Thomas,  who  was  again  put  in  motion  over  the  moun 
tain  into  the  cove.  But  the  third  corps,  under  Crittenden, 
moving  from  the  direction  of  Chattanooga,  was  yet  in  position 
to  be*  attacked ;  and  dispositions  were  rapidly  made  by  Gen 
eral  Bragg  to  fall  upon  it,  and  thus  retrieve  in  some  measure 
the  miscarriage  of  his  other  plans. 

Crittenden  had  moved  on  towards  Ringgold,  with  the  hope 
of  cutting  off  Buckner.  On  reaching  the  point  on  the  Georgia 
railroad  at  which  Buckner  crossed,  he  discovered  he  was  too 
late,  and  turned  towards  Lafayette  to  follow  him.  He  moved 
up  the  Chickamauga,  on  its  east  side,  in  the  direction  of  La 
fayette,  and  was  confronted  by  the  cavalry  under  Generals 
Pegram  and  Armstrong.  After  skirmishes  with  them,  in 
which  there  were  some  brilliant  dashes  on  the  part  of  our 
cavalry,  the  latter  retired  slowly  before  the  enemy,  falling 
back  towards  Lafayette.  To  meet  this  movement,  General 
Bragg  ordered  a  force  of  two  divisions,  under  Lieutenant-gen 
eral  Polk,  to  move  to  the  front.  These  divisions,  Cheatham's 
and  Walker's,  were  put  in  motion,  and  were  in  line  of  battle 
before  daylight,  covering  the  three  roads  on  which  the  enemy's 
three  divisions  were  marching.  Hindman  came  up  after  day 
light,  and  Buckner  was  thrown  forward  as  a  supporting  force 
to  guard  Polk's  left  against  Thomas  and  McCook  in  the  cove. 
Crittenden,  finding  himself  confronted,  declined  battle,  and  re 
tired  during  the  night,  falling  back  on  the  Chickamauga,  which 
he  crossed  at  Lee  and  Gordon's  Mills.  This  placed  the  whole 
of  Rosecrans'  three  corps  on  the  east  side  of  the  Chickamauga, 
and  in  easy  supporting  distance.  % 

Thus  had  failed  the  preliminary  plans  to  take  the  enemy  in 
a  flagrant  error  of  generalship,  and  at  vital  disadvantage ;  and 
nothing  remained  but  to  light  out  the  issue  against  his  concen 
trated  forces  on  the  banks  of  the  Chickamauga.* 


*  To  avoid  recriminations,  which  resulted  in  Generals  Hill  and  Polk  being 
deprived  of  their  commands  in  Bragg's  army,  we  annex  here  what  has  never 
been  published  in  the  Confederacy :  General  Bragg's  official  letters  and  orders 


THE  THIRD  YEAR  OF  THE  WAR.  117 

On  Saturday,  the  19th  September,  General  Bragg  had 
moved  his  army  by  divisions  and  crossed  it  at  several  fords  of 
the  Chickamauga  and  bridges  north  of  Lee  and  Gordon's  Mills. 
Reinforcements  had  reached  him.  Johnston  had  arrived  with 

with  respect  to  the  alleged  dereliction  of  these  officers.  General  Polk  was  also 
blamed  in  subsequent  operations,  as  we  shall  see. 

Major-general  Hindman  received  verbal  instructions  on  the  9th 

to  prepare  his  division  to  move  against  this  force  [Thomas's  corps],  a'nd  was 
informed  that  another  division  from  Lieutenant-general  Hill's  command,  at 
Lafayette,  would  join  him.  That  evening,  the  following  written  orders  were 
issued  to  Generals  Hindman  and  Hill : 

HEADQUARTERS  ARMY  TENNESSEE,     ) 
Lee  and  Gordon's  Mills,  llf  P.M.,  Sept.  9th,  1863.  J 

GENERAL  : — You  will  move  your  division  immediately  to  Da  vis's  X  roads 
on  the  road  from  Lafayette  to  Stevens'  Gap.  At  this  point  you  will  put  your 
self  in  communication  with  the  column  of  General  Hill,  ordered  to  move  to  the 
same  point,  and  take  command  of  the  joint  forces,  or  report  to  the  officer  com 
manding  Hill's  column,  according  to  rank.  If  in  command  you  will  move 
upon  the  enemy,  reported  to  be  4,000  or  5,000  strong,  encamped  at  the  foot  of 
Lookout  Mountain,  at  Stevens'  Gap.  Another  column  of  the  enemy  is  reported 
to  be  at  Cooper's  Gap,  number  not  known. 
I  am,  General,  &c., 

Signed,  KINLOCK  FALCONER,  A.  A.  General. 

To  MAJOR-GENERAL  HINDMAN, 

Commanding  Division. 

HEADQUARTERS  ARMY  TENNESSEE,     ) 
Lee  and  Gordon's  Mills,  11  £  P.  M.,  Sept.  9th,  1863.  J 

GENERAL: — I  enclose  orders  given  to  General  Hindman.  General  Bragg 
directs  that  you  send  or  take,  as  your  judgment  dictates,  Cleburne's  division 
to  unite  with  General  Hindman  at  Davis's  X  roads  to-morrow  morning.  Hind 
man  starts  at  12  o'clock  to-night  and  he  has  thirteen  miles  to  make.  The 
commander  of  the  column  thus  united  will  move  upon  the  enemy  encamped  at 
the  foot  of  Stevens'  Gap,  said  to  be  4,000  or  5,000.  If  unforeseen  circumstances 
should  prevent  your  movement,  notify  Hindman.  A  cavalry  force  should  ac 
company  your  column.  Hindman  has  none.  Open  communications  with 
Hindman  with  your  cavalry,  in  advance  of  the  junction.  He  marches  on  the 
road  from  Dr.  Anderson's  to  Davis's  X  roads. 

I  am,  General,  &c.,  &c., 

KINLOCK  FALCONER,  A.  A.  General, 
LIEUTENANT-GENERAL  HILL, 

Commanding. 

On  the  receipt  of  his  order,  during  the  night,  General  Hill  replied  that  the 
movement  required  by  him  was  impracticable,  as  General  Cleburne  was  sick, 
and  both  the  gaps — Dug  and  Catlett's — had  been  blocked  by  felling  timber, 
which  would  require  twenty-four  hours  for  its  removal.  Not  to  lose  this  favor 
able  opportunity,  Hindman,  by  prompt  movement,  being  ready  in  position,  the 


118  THE   THIRD    YEAK    OF    THE    WAR 

two  brigades  from  Mississippi,  and  reinforcements  from  Gen 
eral  Lee's  lines  in  Virginia  were  hurrying  up  to  what  was  to 
be  the  scene  of  one  of  the  most  critical  and  magnificent  actions 
of  the  war.  The  latter  reinforcements  consisted  of  five  brig- 
following  orders  were  issued  at  8  o'clock,  A.  M.,  on  the  10th,  for  Major-general 
Buckner  to  move  with  his  two  divisions,  and  report  to  Hindman. 

HEADQUARTERS  ARMY  TENNESSEE,     ) 
Lee  and  Gordon's  Mills,  8  o'clock  A.  M.,  Sept.  10th,  1863.  f 

GENERAL  : — I  enclose  orders  issued  last  night  to  Generals  Hill  and  Hind 
man.  General  Hill  has  found  it  impossible  to  carry  out  the  part  assigned  to 
Cleburne's  division.  The  general  commanding  desires  that  you  will  execute 
without  delay  the  order  issued  to  General  Hill.  You  can  move  to  Davis's  X 
roads  by  the  direct  road  from  your  present  position  at  Anderson's,  along  which 
General  Hindman  has  passed. 

I  am,  General,  &c.,  &c., 

Signed,  GEO.  W.  BRENT,  A.  A.  General. 

MAJOR-GENERAL  BUCKNER, 

Anderson's. 

And  both  Hindman  and  Hill  were  notified.  Hindman  had  halted  his  divis 
ion  at  Morgan's,  some  three  or  four  miles  from  Davis's  X  roads,  in  the  cove, 
and  at  this  point  Buckner  joined  him  during  the  afternoon  of  the  10th.  Re 
ports  fully  confirming  previous  information  in  regard  to  the  position  of  the 
enemy's  forces,  were  received  during  the  10th,  and  it  became  certain  that  he 
was  moving  his  three  columns  to  form  a  junction  upon  us  at  or  near  Lafayette. 

The  corps  near  Colonel  Winston's  moved  on  the  mountain  towards  Alpine,  a 
point  twenty  miles  south  of  us.  The  one  opposite  the  cove  continued  its  move 
ment  and  threw  forward  its  advance  to  Davis's  X  roads,  and  Crittenden  moved 
from  Chattanooga  on  the  roads  to  Ringgold  and  Lee  and  Gordon's  Mill.  To 
strike  these  isolated  commands  in  succession  was  our  obvious  policy.  To  se 
cure  more  prompt  and  decided  action  in  the  movement  ordered  against  the 
enemy's  centre,  my  Headquarters  were  removed  to  Lafayette,  where  I  arrived 
about  11  i  on  the  10th, — and  Lieutenant-general  Polk  was  ordered  forward 
with  his  remaining  division  to  Anderson's,  so  as  to  cover  Hindman's  rear  dur 
ing  the  operations  in  the  cove.  At  Lafayette  I  met  Major  Nocquet,  engineer 
officer  on  General  Buckner's  staff,  sent  by  General  Hindman  after  a  junction  of 
their  commands,  to  confer  with  me  and  suggest  a  change  in  the  plan  of  opera 
tions.  After  hearing  the  report  of  this  officer,  and  obtaining  from  the  active 
and  energetic  cavalry  commander  in  front  of  our  position,  Brigadier  general 
Martin,  the  latest  information  of  the  enemy's  movements  and  position,  I  ver 
bally  directed  the  major  to  return  to  General  Hindman;  and  say  that  my  plans 
could  not  be  changed,  and  that  he  would  carry  out  his  orders.  At  the  same 
time  the  following  written  orders  were  sent  to  the  general  by  a  courier : 

HEADQUARTERS  ARMY  TENNESSEE,     ) 
Lafayette,  Ga.,  12  P.  M.,  Sept.  10th,  1863  J 

GENERAL  : — Headquarters  are  here  and  the  following  is  the  information  : 
Crittenden 's  corps  is  advancing  on  us  from  Chattanooga.     A  large  force  from 
the  South  has  advanced  to  within  seven  miles  of  this  point.    Polk  is  left  at 


THE  THIRD  YEAR  OF  THE  WAR.  119 

ades  of  Longstreet's  corps ;  and  these  were  without  artillery 
and  transportation.  The  Virginia  troops  landed  from  the  rail 
road  at  Kinggold,  and  were  moved  rapidly  forward  to  the 
Chickamauga. 

Eosecrans'  army  was  distributed  from  the  head  of  McLe- 


Anderson's  to  cover  your  rear.  General  Bragg  orders  you  to  attack  and  force 
your  way  through  the  enemy  to  this  point,  at  the  earliest  hour  you  can  see 
him  in  the  morning. 

Cleburne  will  attack  in  front  the  moment  your  guns  are  heard. 

I  am,  General,  &c., 

Signed,  GEO.  W.  BRENT,  A.  A.  General 

MAJOR-GENERAL  HINDMAN, 

Commanding,  &c. 

Orders  were  also  given  for  Walker's  reserve  corps  to  move  promptly  and 
join  Cleburne  division  at  Dug  Gap  to  unite  in  the  attack.  At  the  same  time 
Cleburne  was  directed  to  remove  all  obstructions  in  the  road  in  his  front, 
•which  was  promptly  done,  and  by  daylight  he  was  j*eady  to  move.  The  ob 
structions  in  Catlett's  Gap  were  also  ordered  to  be  removed  to  clear  the  road 
in  Hindman's  rear.  Breckinridge's  division,  Hill's  corps,  was  kept  in  position 
south  of  Lafayette  to  check  any  movement  the  enemy  might  make  from  that 
direction. 

At  daylight  I  proceeded  to  join  Cleburne  at  Dug  Gap,  and  found  him  wait 
ing  the  opening  of  Hindman's  guns  to  move  on  the  enemy's  flank  and  rear. 
Most  of  the  day  was  spent  in  this  position,  waiting,  in  great  anxiety,  for  the 
attack  by.  Hindman's  column.  Several  couriers  and  two  staff  officers  were  des 
patched  at  different  times,  urging  him  to  move  with  promptness  and  vigor. 
About  the  middle  of  the  afternoon  the  first  gun  was  heard,  when  the  advance 
of  Cleburne's  division  discovered  the  enemy  had  taken  advantage  of  our  delay 
and  retreated  to  the  mountain  passes.  The  enemy  now  discovered  his  error 
and  commenced  to  repair  it  by  withdrawing  his  corps  from  the  direction  of 
Alpine  to  unite  with  the  one  near  McLemore's  Cove,  while  that  was  gradually 
extended  towards  Lee  and  Gordon's  Mills.  Our  movement  having  thus  failed 
in  its  justly  anticipated  results,  it  was  determined  to  turn  upon  the  third  corps 
of  the  enemy  approaching  us  from  the  direction  of  Chattanooga.  The  forces 
were  accordingly  withdrawn  to  Lafayette,  and  Polk's'and  Walker's  corps  were 
moved  immediately  in  the  direction  of  Lee  and  Gordon's  Mills.  The  one  corps 
of  the  enemy  in  this  direction  was  known  to  be  divided — one  division  having 
been  sent  to  Einggold.  Upon  learning  the  dispositions  of  the  enemy  from  our 
cavalry  commander  in  that  direction  on  the  afternoon  of  the  12th,  Lieutenant- 
general  Polk,  commanding  the  advance  forces,  was  directed  in  the  following 
note. 

HEADQUARTERS  ARMY  TENNESSEE,     ) 
Lafayette,  Ga.,  6  P.  M.,  12th  Sept.  j" 

GENERAL  : — I  enclose  you  a  despatch  from  General  Pegram.  This  presents 
you  a  fine  opportunity  of  striking  Crittenden  in  detail,  and  I  hope  you  will 
avail  yourself  of  it  at  daylight  to-morrow.  This  division  crushed  and  the 


120  THE  THIKD  TEAR  OF  THE  WAE. 

more's  Cove,  along  and  down  the  west  side  of  the  Chicka- 
rnauga  Valley,  as  far  as  Lee  and  Gordon's  Mills,  Chickamanga 
creek  separating  it  from  the  army  of  the  Confederates. 

The  enemy  commenced  the  affair  of  the  19th  by  a  vigorous 
attack  on  Major-general  Walker's  corps.  Our  line  was  formed 
with  Buckner's  left  resting  on  the  Chickamauga  about  one 

others  are  yours.     We  can  then  turn  again  on  the  force  in  the  cove.    Whee 
ler's  cavalry  will  move  on  Wilden  so  as  to  cover  your  right. 
I  shall  be  delighted  to  hear  of  your  success. 

Very  truly,  Yours, 

Signed,  BRAXTON  BRAGG. 

LIEUTENANT-GENERAL  POLK. 

Upon  further  information  the  order  to  attack  at  daylight  on  the  13th,  was  re 
newed  in  two  notes,  at  later  hours  of  the  same  day,  as  follows : 

HEADQUARTERS  ARMY  TENNESSEE,     ) 
Lafayette,  8  P.  M.,  Sept.  12th,  1863.  f 

GENERAL  : — I  enclose  you  a  despatch  marked  "  A  "  and  I  now  give  you  the 
orders  of  the  commanding  general,  viz. :  to  attack  at  day-dawn  to-morrow  the 
infantry  column  reported  in  said  despatch  at  |  of  a  mile  beyond  Pea-vine 
church,  on  the  road  to  Graysville  from  Lafayette. 

Signed,  GEO.  W.  BRENT,  A.  A.  GeneraL 

LIEUTENANT-GENERAL  POLK, 

Commanding  Corps 

HEADQUARTERS  ARMY  TENNESSEE,     ) 
Lafayette,  Georgia,  Sept.  12th,  1863.  f 

GENERAL  : — The  enemy  is  approaching  from  the  South,  and  it  is  highly 
important  that  your  attack  in  the  morning  should  be  quick  and  decided.  Let 
no  time  be  lost. 

I  am,  General,  &c., 

Signed,  GEO.  W.  BRENT,  A.  A.  General. 

LIEUTENANT-GENERAL  POLK, 

Commanding  Corps. 

At  11  P.  M.  a  despatch  was  received  from  the  general  stating  that  he  had 
taken  a  strong  position  for  defence,  and  requesting  that  he  should  be  heavily 
reinforced.  He  was  promptly  ordered  not  to  defer  his  attack,  his  force  being 
already  superior  to  the  enemy,  and  was  reminded  that  his  success  depended 
upon  the  promptness  and  rapidity  of  his  movements.  He  was  further  in 
formed  that  Buckner's  corps  would  be  moved  within  supporting  distance  the 
next  morning.  Early  on  the  13th  I  proceeded  to  the  front,  ahead  of  Buckner's 
command,  to  find  that  no  advance  had  been  made  on  the  enemy,  and  that  his 
forces  had  formed  a  junction  and  recrossed  the  Chickamauga. 

BRAXTON  BRAGG,  General. 
To  GENERAL  S.  COOPER, 

Adjutant  and  Inspector  General,  Bichmond,  Va. 


THE  THIRD  YEAR  OF  THE  WAR.  121 

mile  below  Lee  and  Gordon's  Mills.  On  his  right  came 
Wood  with  his  own  and  Johnston's  divisions,  with  Walker  on 
the  extreme  right, — Cheatham's  division  being  in  reserve. 
General  Walker  found  a  largely  superior  force  of  the  enemy 
opposed  to  him.  He  drove  them  handsomely,  however,  and 
captured  several  batteries  of  artillery  in  most  gallant  charges. 
Before  Cheatham's  division,  ordered  to  his  support,  could 
reach  him,  he  had  been  pressed  back  to  his  first  position 
by  the  extended  lines  of  the  enemy  assailing  him  on  both 
flanks. 

The  two  commands  united  were  soon  enabled  to  force  the 
enemy  back  again,  and  recover  our  advantage,  though  we 
were  yet  greatly  outnumbered. 

These  movements  on  our  right  were  in  a  direction  to  leave 
an  opening  in  our  line  between  Cheatham  and  Hood.  Stew 
art's  division  forming  Buckner's  second  line  was  thrown  to  the 
right  to  fill  this,  and  it  soon  became  hotly  engaged,  as  did 
Hood's  whole  front. 

The  enemy,  whose  left  was  at  Lee  and  Gordon's  Mills  when 
our  movement  commenced,  had  rapidly  transferred  forces  from 
his  extreme  right,  changing  his  entire  line,  and  seemed  dis 
posed  to  dispute  with  all  his  ability  our  effort  to  gain  the  main 
road  to  Chattanooga  in  his  rear. 

Lieutenant-general  Polk  was  ordered  to  move  his  remaining 
division  across  at  the  nearest  ford  and  to  assume  the  command 
in  person  on  our  right.  Hill's  corps  was  also  ordered  to  cross 
below  Lee  and  Gordon's  Mills  and  join  the  line  on  the  right. 
Whilst  these  movements  were  being  made  our  right  and  cen 
tre  were  heavily  and  almost  constantly  engaged. 

Stewart  by  a  vigorous  assault  broke  the  enemy's  centre  and 
penetrated  far  into  his  lines,  but  was  obliged  to  retire  for 
want  of  sufficient  force  to  meet  the  heavy  enfilade  fire  which 
he  encountered  from  the  right. 

Hood,  later  engaged,  advanced  from  the  first  fire  and  con 
tinued  to  drive  the  force  in  his  front  until  night. 

Cleburne's  division  of  Hill's  corps,  which  first  reached  the 
right,  was  ordered  to  attack  immediately  in  conjunction  with 
the  force  already  engaged.  This  veteran  command,  under  its 
gallant  chief,  moved  to  its  work  after  sunset,  taking  the  enemy 
completely  by  surprise,  driving  him  in  great  disorder  for  nearly 


122  THE  THIRD  YEAR  OF  THE  WAR. 

a  mile,  and  inflicting  a  very  heavy  loss.  Night  found  us  mas 
ters  of  the  ground,  after  a  series  of  very  obstinate  contests  with 
largely  superior  numbers. 

For  the  grand  and  decisive  work  of  the  next  day,  the  forces 
of  Bragg's  army  were  divided  into  two  wings. 

The  right  wing  was  placed  under  Lieutenant-general  Polk, 
and  the  left  under  Lieutenant-general  Longstreet.  The  former 
was  composed  of  Lieutenant-general  Hill's  corps,  of  two  divis 
ions,  Major-general  Cleburne's  and  Major-general  Breckin- 
ridge's ;  of  the  division  of  Major-general  Cheatham,  of  Lieu 
tenant-general  Folk's  corps,  and  the  division  of  Major-general 
W.  II.  T.  Walker. 

The  left  was  composed  of  the  divisions  of  Major-general 
Stewart,  and  Brigadier-general  Preston  and  Bushrod  Johnson, 
of  Major-general  Buckner's  corps ;  Major-general  Hindman, 
of  Lieutenant-general  Polk's  corps,  and  Benning's,  Lane's  and 
Robertson's  brigades,  of  Hood's  division,  and  Kershaw's  and 
Hurnphrie's  brigades,  of  McLaw's  division,  of  his  own  (Lieu 
tenant-general  Longs treet's)  corps. 

The  front  line  of  the  right  wing  consisted  of  three  divisions 
— -Breckinridge  and  Cleburne,  of  Hill's  corps,  and  Cheatham, 
of  Polk's  corps — which  were  posted  from  right  to  left  in 
the  order  named.  Major-general  Walker  was  held  in  re 
serve. 

The  left  wing  was  composed  of  Major-general  Stewart's  di 
vision  on  the  right  with  Hood's  on  the  left.  On  Hood's  left 
was  Hindman's  division  of  Lieutenant-general  Polk's  corps, 
with  Preston's  division  of  Buckner's  corps  on  the  extreme 
left. 

Orders  were  given  to  Lieutenant-general  Polk  to  commence 
the  attack  at  daylight.  The  left  wing  was  to  await  the  attack 
by  the  right,  take  it  up  promptly  when  made,  and  the  whole 
line  was  then  to  be  pushed  vigorously  and  persistently  against 
the  enemy  throughout  its  extent. 

"  Before  the  dawn  of  day,"  writes  General  Bragg  in  his  offi 
cial  report,  u  myself  and  staff  were  ready  for  the  saddle,  occu 
pying  a  position  immediately  in  rear  of  and  accessible  to  all 
parts  of  the  line.  With  increasing  anxiety  and  disappoint 
ment  I  waited  until  after  sunrise  without  hearing  a  gun  ;  and 
at  length  despatched  a  staff  officer  to  Lieutenant-general  ?olk 


THE  THIRD  YEAR  OF  THE  WAR.  123 

to  ascertain  the  cause  of  the  delay,  and  urge  him  to  a  prompt 
and  speedy  movement.  This  officer  not  finding  the  general 
with  his  troops,  and  learning  where  he  had  spent  the  night, 
proceeded  across  Alexander's  Bridge,  to  the  east  side  of  the 
Chiekamauga,  and  there  delivered  my  message.  Proceeding  in 
person  to  the  right  wing,  I  found  the  troops  not  even  prepared 
for  the  movement.  Messengers  were  immediately  despatched 
for  Lieutenant-general  Polk,  and  he  shortly  after  joined  me. 
My  orders  were  renewed  and  the  general  was  urged  to  their 
prompt  execution,  the  more  important  as  the  ear  was  saluted 
throughout  the  night  with  the  sounds  of  the  axe  and  falling 
timber  as  the  enemy  industriously  labored  to  strengthen  his 
position  by  hastily  constructed  barricades  and  breastworks. 
A  reconnoissance  made  in  the  front  of  our  extreme  right  dur 
ing  this  delay  crossed  the  main  road  to  Chattanooga,  and 
proved  the  important  fact  that  this  greatly  desired  position 
was  open  to  our  possession.  The  reasons  assigned  for  this  un 
fortunate  delay  by  the  wing  commander,  appear  in  part  in  the 
reports  of  his  subordinates.  It  is  sufficient  to  say  they  are 
entirely  unsatisfactory." 

But  it  was  said,  on  the  other  side  of  the  story,  that  P  oik's 
delay  was  due  to  circumstances  beyond  his  control ;  that,  prior 
to  giving  the  order  to  move  forward  to  the  attack,  General 
Polk  discovered  that  owing  to  the  want  of  precaution  on  the 
part  of  the  proper  authority  in  the  formation  of  the  general 
line  of  battle,  a  portion  of  the  line  of  the  left  wing  had  been 
formed  in  front  of  his  line — a  portion  amounting  to  a  whole 
division — and  that  had  the  order  to  make  the  attack  at  daylight 
been  obeyed,  this  division,  from  its  position,  must  inevitably 
have  been  slaughtered.  It  was  saved  by  an  order  to  halt 
Cheatharn's  division,  and  by  orders  to  the  left  of  Cleburne  ad 
vising  it  of  its  whereabouts. 

The  action  was  opened  upon  the  right  of  the  Confederates 
about  ten  o'clock  in  the  morning" by  a  forward  movement  of 
Breckiriridge,  followed  and  accompanied  by  Cleburne.  The 
enemy  had  during  the  night  thrown  up  breastworks  of  heavy 
timber,  cut  down  from  the  forest,  behind  which  he  had  en 
trenched  himself.  These  lay  chiefly  in  Cleburne's  front.  He. 
moved  direct  upon  them,  while  Breckinridge  swung  round  to 
flank  them.  The  assault  was  a  desperate  one.  General  Polk 


124:  THE   THIRD    YEAR   OF    THE    WAR. 

being  informed  by  Gfeneral  Hill  that  the  enemy  was  threaten 
ing  his  right  flank,  Polk  ordered  Walker  immediately  to  move 
to  the  right  and  form  an  echelon  upon  Breckinridge,  over 
lapping  his  right.  It  was  then  ascertained  that  no  enemy  was 
there.  But  the  forward  movement  of  the  front  line  had  resulted 
in  a  severe  conflict,  desperately  contested,  which  drove  the 
enemy  around  on  the  extreme  left  a  mile  or  more  across  the 
Chattanooga  road. 

For  two  hours  the  fight  raged  with  sublime  fury.  Again 
and  again,  as  we  struck  the  enemy,  did  his  stately  lines  of 
soldiers  crumble  into  masses  of  terror-stricken  fugitives. 
Thomas  commanded  the  Yankee's  left.  Heavy  reinforcements 
being  sent  from  the  enemy's  right  to  him,  he  was  enabled  to 
regain  a  portion  of  the  ground  he  had  lost.  I^ever  did  Yankees 
fight  better  than  just  here.  They  drove  back  Cleburne's  magni 
ficent  division,  and  it  appeared  at  one  time  as  if  our  right 
and  centre  were  giving  way  before  Thomas's  extraordinary 
attack. 

But  while  such  were  the  operations  on  our  right  wing,  the 
tide  of  battle  running  from  right  to  left  had  reached  Long- 
street's  extreme  left  about  eleven  o'clock.  Hood  and  others 
were  ordered  to  make  a  vigorous  assault  in  front ;  Bnckner 
was  made  to  execute  a  successful  flank  movement ;  and  under 
the  vigor  of  the  combined  attack  Rosecrans  found  his  lines 

O 

steadily  giving  way,  and  McCook  and  Crittenden  forced  far  to 
the  right.  He  had  moved  most  of  his  strength  to  the  left 
where  Thomas  had  fought  so  brilliantly,  but  with  the  advantage 
of  superior  numbers.  JSTegley,  hard  pressed  on  the  left,  reported 
to  Bosecrans.  u  Tell  General  Negley  I  can't  help  him,"  was 
the  reply. 

The  Yankees  In  Longstreet's  front  had  sought  a  position  on 
a  high  ridge.  From  this  position  they  were  driven,  with  heavy 
loss  in  killed,  wounded,  prisoners,  artillery,  small-arms  and 
•colors,  after  a  desperate  struggle,  by  the  brigades  of  Kershaw 
and  Humphries,  under  the  command  of  Brigadier-general 
Kershaw,  in  the  absence  of  Major-general  McLaws,  reinforced 
by  Gracise's,  Kelley's,  and  Trigg's  brigades,  of  Major-general 
Preston's  division,  Major-general  Hindman  completing  the 
general  work  of  the  line  to  the  left  by  driving  the  enemy  on 
his  front  before  him  along  with  those  driven  from  the  ridge  by 


THE  THIRD  YEAK  OF  THE  WAK.  125 

Preston  and  Kershaw.  Eosecrans,  perceiving  what  was  taking 
place  on  his  right,  ordered  up  reinforcements  from  his  left  to 
support  his  retiring  or  rather  frightened  battalions,  which, 
finding  a  good  position,  awaited  their  arrival,  turning  upon 
their  pursuers  with  the  fierceness  of  a  temporary  and  desperate 
energy.  Brigadier-general  Law,  commanding  Hood's  division, 
perceiving  this  movement,  ordered  a  battery  of  ten  guns  to  a 
position  from  which  he  could  enfilade  the  reinforcing  column 
as  it  advanced.  The  battery  opened  just  as  it  was  about 
wheeling  into  position,  and,  at  the  same  time,  Stewart's  divi 
sion,  posted  on  the  extreme  right,  was  thrown  forward  on  its 
flank.  The  shock  was  terrible.  The  enemy  halted,  staggered 
backwards,  and  fell  into  confusion. 

It  was  late  in  the  evening  when  the  whole  Confederate  line 
was  revised  and  posted,  and  a  forward  movement  in  all  its 
length  ordered.  The  right  swung  round  with  an  extended 
sweep,  with  its  firm  supports,  and  the  left  rallied  once  more  to 
the  charge  of  the  works,  before  which  it  had  suffered  so 
severely  in  the  morning.  Never  did  troops  move  up  to  their 
work  with  more  resolution ;  the  daring  Breckinridge  with  his 
Kentuckians  and  Louisianians,  and  Cleburne  with  his  Arkan- 
sians  and  Alabarnians,  and  Walker  with  his  South  Carolinians, 
Mississippians,  and  Georgians,  and  Cheatham  with  his  Tennes- 
eeeans — all  moved  forward  in  one  mighty  tide  amidst  the 
thunders  of  some  twenty  batteries,  and  the  roar  of  thousands 
of  muskets  and  rifles.  The  scene  was  one  of  surpassing  sublim 
ity  and  grandeur.  Sweeping  forward  as  the  flood  of  a  mighty 
river,  it  carried  every  thing  before  it,  nothing  being  able  to 
stand  in  the  resistless  line  of  its  path.  The  enemy's  work£, 
which  opposed  such  a  stubborn  resistance  in  the  morning,  suc 
cumbed  before  the  torrent,  and  the  brave  men  of  Cleburne's 
division,  which  had  been  repulsed  in  the  morning,  had,  by 
their  extraordinary  gallantry  in  the  evening,  the  opportunity 
of  avenging  the  experiences  of  the  earlier  part  of  the  day.  The 
whole  field  was  carried  triumphantly,  and  the  enemy  driven  as 
chaif  before  the  wind.  He  withstood  as  long  as  human  powers 
of  endurance  could  bear  up  against  such  a  pressure,  then 
yielded,  and  fell  back  partly  upon  and  into  the  hands  of  the 
right  wing,  where  several  hundred  were  captured,  the  residue 
crossing  the  Chattanooga  road  and  retreating  in  the  direction 


126  THE  THIRD  TEAR  OF  THE  WAR. 

of  Missionary  Bidge.  Night  interposed,  and  though,  it  brought 
with.it  a  magnificent  moon,  no  orders  were  received  to  pursue, 
and  the  troops  were  halted,  giving  expression  to  their  sense  of 
the  glorious  victory  won,  and  unconquerable  desire  to  pursue 
it  to  an  absolute  success  in  the  enemy's  utter  annihilation,  in 
such  long,  loud  and  triumphant  cheering,  as  would  almost 
seem  to  rend  the  heavens. 

Never  was  a  more  disorderly  retreat  of  an  enemy.  Long- 
street,  who  had  contributed  so  much  to  the  fortunes  of  the  day, 
now  saw  that  by  a  forward  movement  of  the  whole  army, 
JRosecrans'  whole  force  might  be  captured  in  twenty-four 
hours,  and  that  no  obstacle  was  between  us  and  the  Ohio,  and 
perhaps  peace.  He  sent  word  to  Wheeler,  who  was  on  his  left, 
to  dash  forward  between  Chattanooga  and  the  enemy  and  cut 
him  to  pieces;  but  just  as  Wheeler  was  about  te  execute  this 
movement,  he  received  an  order  from  Bragg  directing  him  to 
pick  up  arms  and  stragglers.  It  was  said  that  Longstreet  had 
not  heard  from  Bragg  but  once  during  the  day,  and  then  it 
was  to  say  that  he  was  beaten  on  the  right.  He  now  sent  to 
beg  him  to  advance ;  but  the  General-in-chief  declined  to 
do  so. 

General  Forrest  had  climbed  a  tree  and  from  his  lofty  perch 
watched  the  retreating  enemy.  He  saw  the  blue  uniforms 
swarming  over  the  fields,  and  the  disorganized  masses  of  the 
enemy  choked  with  flight,  and  struggling  in  mortal  panic  as 
sounds  of  feeble  pursuit  followed  on  their  heels.  He  shouted 
to  a  staff  officer :  "  Tell  General  Bragg  to  advance  the  whole 
army  ;  the  enemy  is  ours." 

*Bragg  did  not  catch  the  inspiration.  He  tells  us  in  his  official 
report :  "  The  darkness  of  the  night  and  the  density  of  the  forest 
rendered  further  movements  uncertain  and  dangerous,  and 
the  army  bivouacked  on  the  ground  it  had  so  gallantly 
won." 

But  granting  that  reasons,  substantive  reasons,  existed  for  not 
pursuing  on  Sunday  night,  what  hindered  General  Bragg  from 
pursuing  on  Monday  morning  at  daylight  ?  Chattanooga  was 
only  ten  miles  from  the  battle-field,  and  .unfortified;  our  pursu 
ing  cavalry  could  see  their  head  of  column,  and  urged  General 
Bragg  by  repeated  messages  to  pursue,  that  every  hour's  delay 
would  be  equal  to  the  loss  of  a  thousand  men.  Citizens  along 


THE  THIED  YEAR  OF  THE  WAK.  127 

the  road  reported  that  many  of  the  Yankee  commands  passed 
their  dwellings  in  the  utmost  disorder,  without  arms  or  accoutre 
ments,  and  many  without  hats,  as  a  confused  and  routed  mob, 
not  as  troops  in  column,  everything  in  Chattanooga  and  on  the 
road  inviting  rather  than  forbidding  attack.  Even  if  they  had 
had  good  defensive  works,  with  the  condition  as  reported 
above,  by  a  prompt  pursuit  our  army  would  have  gone  into 
Chattanooga  with  theirs,  and  thus  broken  the  effect  of  their 
fire  ;  and  if  such  could  have  been  the  result  with  good  defen 
sive  works,  what  might  not  the  result  have  been  without  them, 
and  the  enemy  panic-stricken  because  of  the  knowledge  that 
none  such  existed?  What  hindered  General  Bragg  from  pur 
suing  is  not  known,  but  it  is  known  that,  while  pursuit  seems 
to  have  been  invited,  he  did  not  pursue.  He  simply  sent  out 
detachments  to  the  battle-field  to  gather  up  the  fruits  of  vic 
tory,  in  arms  large  and  small,  to  be  secured  and  sent  to  the 
rear,  and  caused  the  captured  banners  to  be  collected  to  be 
sent  to  Kichmond,  arid  prisoners  to  be  counted  and  sent  to 
the  rear. 

The  enemy's  immediate  losses  in  the  battle  of  Chickamauga 
were  immense.  It  was  officially  stated  that  we  captured  over 
eight  thousand  prisoners,  fifty-one  pieces  of  artillery,  fifteen 
thousand  stand  of  small  arms,  and  quantitiesof  ammunition,  with 
wagons,  ambulances,  teams,  medicines,  hospital  stores,  &c.,  in 
large  quantities. 

The  enemy's  loss  in  killed  and  wounded  have  been  by  many 
thousands  greater  than  ours  ;  and  General  Bragg,  in  his  official 
report,  makes  the  appalling  confession  that,  on  this  u  River  of 
Death,"  he  lost  "  two-fifths  "  of  his  troops.  Our  loss  in  general 
officers  was  conspicuous.  Brigadier-general  B.  H.  Helm,* 
Preston  Smith,  and  James  Deshler,  had  died  on  the  field.  The 


*  Brigadier-general  Helm  was  a  grandson  of  Ben  Hardin,  well  known  to  the 
oldest  inhabitants  of  Kentucky,  as  a  leading  public-spirited  gentleman  of  high 
moral  worth  in  the  earlier  days  of  the  Warrior  State.  General  Helm  was 
born  in  Hardin  County,  Kentucky,  in  1831 — graduated  at  West  Point,  and 
afterwards  retired  from  the  army  of  the  United  States  to  take  up  the  study  of 
law.  He  entered  the  Southern  army  without  a  commission,  but  from  the  rank 
of  private  he  was  soon  made  colonel,  and  commanded  the  first  Kentucky 
cavalry  in  the  Confederate  service.  He  was  made  brigadier-general  in  March, 
1862.  The  Kentucky  brigade,  which  he  commanded  in  the  battle  of  Chicka- 


123  THE   THIRD   YEAR    OF   THE   WAR. 

lion-hearted  Hood,  the  luminary  of  Texas  chivalry  and  courage, 
was  so  severely  wounded  that  he  had  to  suffer  amputation  of 
the  thigh.  The  notice  of  his  extraordinary  gallantry  by  Long- 
street,  who  with  generous  ardor  communicated  it  in  a  special 
letter  to  his  government,  obtained  for  him  the  commission  of  a 
Lieutenant-general,  and  ranged  him  with  the  popular  heroes 
of  the  war. 

The  day  following  this  terrible  conflict,  General  Bragg 
ordered  the  troops  under  arms,  and  marched  them  down  the 
Chattanooga  road  until  they  came  near  to  Rossville,  where 
Forest  and  Pegram  were  thundering  away  with  their  batteries 
at  the  retreating  enemy,  there  had  them  filed  to  the  right,  and 
thrown  down  the  Chickamauga  creek,  that  they  might  rest  from 
their  fatigues  and  be  in  a  good  position  to  move  upon  Burn- 
side  or  flank  Rosecrans,  as  future  contingences  might  dictate. 
On  Wednesday,  the  23d  of  September,  an  order  was  issued  for 
the  whole  army  to  move  upon  Chattanooga.  It  moved  up  to 
and  over  Missionary  Ridge,  where  it  was  halted.  And  there 
it  was  to  remain  halted  for  many  long  weeks. 

Chickamauga  had  conferred  a  brilliant  glory  upon  our  arms, 
but  little  else.  Rosecrans  still  held  the  prize  of  Chattanooga, 
and  with  it  the  possession  of  East  Tennessee.  Two-thirds  of 
our  nitre  beds  were  in  that  region,  and  a  large  proportion  of 
the  coal  which  supplied  our  foundries.  It  abounded  in  the 
necessaries  of  life.  It  was  one  of  the  strongest  countries  in  the 
world,  so  full  of  lofty  mountains,  that  it  had  been  called,  not 
unaptly,  the  Switzerland  of  America.  As  the  possession  of 
Switzerland  opened  the  door  to  the  invasion  of  Italy,  Germany 
and  France,  so  the  possession  of  East  Tennessee  gave  easy 
access  to  Virginia,  North  Carolina,  Georgia  and  Alabama. 

manga,  went  into  the  fight  with  seventeen  hundred  and  sixty-three  men,  and 
came  out  with  only  four  hundred  and  thirty-two. 

General  Helm's  wife  was  a  half-sister  of  Mrs.  Lincoln.  Immediately  after 
the  fall  of  Fort  Sumter,  in  1861,  President  Lincoln  sent  him  a  commission  as 
major  in  the  regular  army  of  the  United  States  ;  and  apprehending  that  he 
might  not  be  willing  to  be  employed  to  murder  his  own  people,  the  Yankee 
Secretary  of  War  proposed,  as  a  salve  for  any  scruples,  to  send  him  as  pay 
master  to  New  Mexico.  The  gallant  Kentuckian  spurned  the  bribe,  gave  his 
services,  and  at  last  his  life,  to  the  Confederacy,  and  fell  in  the  numerous 
throng  of  brave  defenders  of  truth,  justice  and  liberty.  His  wife  lives,  known 
as  one  of  the  most  enthusiastic  and  devoted  patriot  women  of  the  South. 


GEN.   BRAXTON    BRAGG. 


for  the  Third  Year  cf  the 


THE  THIRD  YEAR  OF  THE  WAR.  129 

Kosecrans  found  occasion  after  the  battle  to  congratulate 
his  army  on  their  retention  of  Chattanooga.  He  said,  "  You 
have  accomplished  the  great  work  of  the  campaign  ;  you  hold 
the  key  of  East  Tennessee,  of  Northern  Georgia,  and  of  the 
enemy's  mines  of  coal  and  nitre."  He  claimed  that  he  held  in 
his  hands  the  substantial  fruits  of  victory,  and  sought  to  per 
suade  his  government  that  the  battle  of  Chickamauga  was 
merely  an  incident  to  the  concentration  of  his  forces  and  his 
cover  of  Chattanooga.  He  lost  no  time  in  reorganizing  his 
army  at  Chattanooga.  He  assumed  a  fortified  line  about  a 
mile  and  a  half  in  length,  covering  the  pontoons,  stores  and 
hospitals,  and  commanding  all  the  south  east  and  eastern  ap 
proaches  to  the  place,  leaving  Bragg  no  chance  to  dislodge  him 
by  direct  attack,  only  by  long  and  toilsome  maneuvers  and 
inarches  threatening  his  communications. 

Bragg's  awkward  pause  before  Chattanooga  was  the  occa 
sion  of  new  propositions  of  the  campaign  on  our  side.  Of  one 
of  these  General  Bragg  communicated  as  follows  to  the  War 
Department  at  Richmond. 

"  The  suggestion  of  a  movement  by  our  right  immediately 
after  the  battle,  to  the  north  of  the  Tennessee,  and  thence  upon 
Nashville,  requires  notice  only  because  it  will  find  a  place  in 
the  files  of  the  Department.  Such  a  movement  was  utterly 
impossible  for  want  of  transportation.  Nearly  half  our  army 
consisted  of  reinforcements  just  before  the  battle,  without  a 
wagon  or  an  artillery  horse,  and  nearly,  if  not  quite,  a  third  of 
the  artillery  horses  on  the  field  had  been  lost.  The  railroad 
bridges  too  had  been  destroyed  to  a  point  south  of  Einggold, 
and  on  all  the  roads  from  Cleveland  to  Knoxville.  To  these 
insurmountable  difficulties  were  added  the  entire  absence  of 
means  to  cross  the  river,  except  by  fording  at  a  few  precarious 
points  too  deep  for  artillery,  and  the  well  known  danger  of 
sudden  rises  by  which  all  communication  would  be  cut,  a  con 
tingency  which  did  actually  happen  a  few  days  after  the 
visionary  scheme  was  proposed.  But  the  most  serious  objec 
tion  to  the  proposition  was  its  entire  wrant  of  military  propri 
ety.  It  abandoned  to  the  enemy  our  entire  line  of  communi 
cation,  and  laid  open  to  him  our  depots  of  supplies,  while  it 
placed  us  with  a  greatly  inferior  force  beyond  a  difficult,  and 
at  times  impassable  river,  in  a  country  affording  no  subsist- 


130  THE  THIRD  YEAR  OF  THE  WAR. 

encc  to  men  or  animals.  It  also  left  open  to  the  enemy,  at  a 
distance  of  only  ten  miles,  our  battle-field,  with  thousands  of 
our  wounded,  and  his  own,  and  all  the  trophies  and  supplies 
we  had  won.  All  this  was  to  be  risked  and  given  up,  for 
what  ?  to  gain  the  enemy's  rear  and  cut  him  off  from  his  depot 
of  supplies,  by  the  route  over  the  mountains,  when  the  very 
movement  abandoned  to  his  unmolested  use  the  better  and 
more  practicable  route  half  the  length,  on  the  south  side  of  the 
river. 

"  It  is  hardly  necessary  to  say  the  proposition  was  not  even 
entertained,  whatever  may  have  been  the  inferences  drawn 
from  subsequent  movements." 

The  plan  preferred  by  General  Bragg  was  to  invest  Chatta 
nooga,  and  starve  the  enemy  out.  Rosecrans'  shortest  and 
most  important  road  to  his  depot  at  Bridgeport  lay  along  the 
south  bank  of  the  Tennessee  ;  and,  as  Bragg  held  this,  the 
enemy  was  forced  to  a  road  double  the  length,  over  two  ranges 
of  mountains,  by  wagon  transportation,  upon  which  long  and 
difficult  route  our  cavalry  might  operate  with  advantage. 
Looking  to  a  speedy  evacuation  of  Chattanooga,  for  want  of 
wood  arid  forage,  General  Bragg  declared  that  he  "  held  the 
enemy  at  his  mercy,  and  that  his  -destruction  was  only  a  ques 
tion  of  time."  Alas,  we  shall  see  hereafter  how  vain  were  the 
sanguine  expectations  and  the  swollen  boast  of  this  ill-starred 
and  unfortunate  commander ! 

General  Bragg  has  burdened  the  story  of  Chickamauga  with 
recriminations  of  his  officers  :  a  resource  to  which  he  showed, 
on  all  occasions,  a  characteristic  and  ungenerous  tendency. 
His  course,  in  this  respect,  invites  and  justifies  severe  criticism 
of  himself.  Whatever  may  have  been  the  faults  of  his  subor 
dinate  officers  in  the  action  of  Chickamauga,  it  is  certain  that 
the  military  opinion  -of  the  Confederacy  indicated  two  import 
ant  errors  of  his  own  in  the  conduct  of  this  famous  battle. 

1.  That  he  failed  to  cut  off  the  enemy's  exit  to  Chattanooga, 
which  it  is  considered  he  might  have  done,  if  he  had  marched 
his  army  by  the  right  flank,  and  crossed  lower  down  on  the 
Chickamauga ;  at  such  point  throwing  his  army  across  the 
creek  and  valley,  forming  it  at  right  angles  to  the  Lafayette 
and  Chattanooga  road,  and  so  covering  the  exit  from  the  valley 
in  the  direction  of  Chattanooga.  As  it  was,  he  crossed  his 


THE  THIRD  YEAR  OF  THE  WAR.  131 

army  north  of  Lee  and  Gordon's  Mills,  ordered  a  demonstra 
tion  "there,  which  might  have  been  well  used  as  a  cover  for  the 
proper  movement,  and  utterly  failed,  as  his  critics  say,  to  grasp 
the  situation. 

2.  That  he  failed  to  pursue  a  routed  and  disorganized 
enemy,  threw  away  the  opportunity  of  completing  his  victory, 
realized  no  substantial  fruit  from  it,  and,  after  one  of  the  most 
splendid  successes  in  the  record  of  Confederate  arms,  left  his 
enemy  in  statu  quo,  reorganizing  at  leisure. 

In  this  latter  respect,  Chickamauga  must  indeed  be  con 
fessed  to  be  a  second  and  enlarged  edition  of  the  famous  Bull 
Eun.  It  will  stand  conspicuous  among  the  various  fruitless 
victories  gained  by  the  Confederates — among  the  least  pardon 
able  blunders  and  shortcomings  of  history.* 

*  We  may  place  here,  in  conjunction  with  Chickamauga,  some  interesting 
passages  from  a  private  letter  of  a  distinguished  general  officer  in  the  West, 
reviewing  the  campaign  there,  and  criticising  with  great  intelligence,  the  gen 
eral  military  policy  of  the  Confederacy : 

....  It  would  be  a  laborious  task  to  review  the  campaigns  even  of  the 
Army  of  Tennessee.  Yet  what  profound  lessons  do  they  teach  ?  What  errors 
have  been  committed  ?  What  opportunities  have  been  lost  ?  The  man  who 
does  not  see  these,  and  who  has  not  learned  from  them  powerful  lessons  for 
the  future,  is  totally  unfit  for  any  responsible  military  position  in  the  pregnant 
future,  on  which  the  destiny  of  untold  millions  now  trembles. 

We  lost  Donelson,  and  as  a  consequence  Middle  Tennessee,  from  the  want  of 
rapid  combination  and  concentration.  We  lost  Shiloh  first  by  delay,  then  by 
want  of  persistence  in  the  first  day's  fight,  then  for  the  want  of  the  proper  dis 
tribution  of  troops  at  the  close  of  that  day.  We  threw  away  the  golden  mo 
ments  at  Mumfordsville,  in  Kentucky,  and  further  neglected  to  make  security 
doubly  sure  by  concentrating  the  two  armies,  Smith's  and  Bragg's ;  and  yet 
again  these  two  armies,  for  the  want  of  proper  generalship  and  energy  together, 
precipitately  and  ingloriously  abandoned  the  broad  territory  between  the  Ohio 
and  the  Cumberland  rivers.  It  is  remarkable,  that  this  campaign  in  Kentucky 
presented  more  glorious  opportunities  for  great  results,  than  any  other  in  this, 
or,  perhaps,  any  other  war,  and  all  was  lost  for  the  want  of  the  simplest  com 
binations.  Again,  Nashville,  garrisoned  by  a  few  thousand  Federals,  was  not 
taken,  simply  because  the  attack  was  prohibited.  God  knows  how  often  this 
city  might  have  been  taken  before  the  battle  of  Murfreesboro',  while  the  two 
armies  were  lying  idle  or  being  slowly  moved,  without  any  decided  plan  or 
purpose.  How  often  before  and  subsequent  to  the  battle  of  Murfreesboro',  did 
the  dispersed  condition  of  the  Yankee  forces  offer  the  opportunity  for  a  good 
general  to  make  a  vigorous  and  rapid  movement,  such  as  would  have  destroyed 
its  fragments  in  detail  ?  Murfreesboro'  was  lost  by  want,  first,  of  proper  com 
bination  on  the  field,  and  then  by  want  of  persistence  in  the  fight,  especially  on 
the  left.  In  six  weeks  after  the  battle  of  Murfreesboro',  our  army  in  Tennessee 


132  THE  THIRD  TEAR  OF  THE  WAK. 

was  as  strong  as  when  it  fought  that  battle,  and  could  have  driven  Rosecrans 
from  Tennessee  with  ordinary  generalship.  From  March  till  June,  in  1863, 
we  remained  idly  stretching  from  Shelbyville  to  the  right,  while  the  Yankees, 
holding  a  line  from  Franklin  to  Woodbury,  again  and  again  afforded  us  an  op 
portunity  to  fall,  by  rapid  combinations,  upon  detached  masses,  and  thus  de 
stroy  their  army.  In  July  we  occupied  a  strong  ridge,  stretching  from  Bell- 
Buckle  towards  Bradyville,  very  strong  by  nature  on  the  right,  and  made  strong 
by  fortifications  on  the  left,  in  front  of  Shelbyville.  An  injudicious  disposition 
of  forces  left  Hoover's  Gap  undefended  by  our  army.  Rosecrans  advanced  upon 
Hoover's  Gap.  Three  brigades  of  Confederates  moved  rapidly  up  and  held 
them  in  the  gap  for  over  forty  hours.  A  rapid  concentration  of  our  forces  at 
Hoover's  Gap,  or  one  half  of  them,  by  moving  on  the  enemy's  flank  and  rear, 
to  a  commanding  position,  which  lay  invitingly  before  us,  would  have  routed 
the  enemy,  and  planted  us  still  more  firmly  in  Tennessee.  But  we  were  or 
dered  to  retreat,  and  we  retired  before  the  scattered  forces  of  the  enemy,  when 
a  rapid  combination  and  a  vigorous  attack,  with  a  sudden  change  from  a  retro 
grade  to  an  advance  movement  on  some  one  of  the  enemy's  masses  in  motion, 
might  have  insured  victory.  In  that  retrograde  movement  we  also  abandoned 
some  remarkably  strong  positions  without  taking  advantage  of  them,  or  making 
an  effort  to  repulse  the  enemy,  even  when  we  could  have  done  so  without  dan 
ger  to  our  army. 

At  Chickamauga,  the  world  knows,  we  lost  the  fruits  of  the  victory  for  want 
of  vigorous  pursuit.  On  the  night  of  the  20th  of  September  there  should  have 
been  no  sleep  and  no  repose.  A  vigorous,  persistent,  onward  movement  would 
have  destroyed  Rosecrans'  army.  How  deplorable  has  been  the  consequences 
of  our  want  of  energy,  want  of  activity,  and  want  of  persistence  !  The  army 
of  Tennessee  being  tied  to  no  special  line  of  operations,  and  embarrassed  by  no 
important  point,  such  as  Richmond,  requiring  to  be  defended,  had  greatly  the 
advantage  over  the  army  of  Virginia,  yet  the  former  has  constantly  yielded  up 
territory  to  a  conquering  foe,  and  the  latter  has  overthrown  every  army  that 
came  against  it. 

I  have  meant  merely  to  allude  to  the  errors  on  our  line  of  operations.  There 
are  greater  errors  than  these,  greater  because  they  pertain  to  the  management 
of  all  the  Confederate  forces.  They  are  errors  in  what  is  usually  denominated 
grand  strategy. 

We  now  have,  I  may  say,  numerous  independent  armies  in  the  field,  each 
acting  almost  without  reference  to  all  the  others,  and  rarely  co-operating  with 
any  other  army. 

The  Allied  Armies,  in  1814,  entered  France  with  400,000  men,  and  had  a 
numerous  force  hovering  on  the  borders  of  that  empire.  Napoleon  had  but 
120,000  in  the  field,  exclusive  of  the  forces  shut  up  in  fortifications  and  ope 
rating  beyond  the  boundaries  of  France.  We  know  how  nearly  he  came  to 
vanquishing  the  Allied  Powers,  and  even  his  enemies  have  demonstrated  how 
he  could  have  completely  overthrown  the  armies  against  which  he  contended. 
A  rapid  concentration  of  forces  upon  detached  armies,  is  a  well-established 
means  by  which  inferior  forces  must  conquer  superior  numbers.  Superior  mo 
bility  in  strategy,  and  the  concentrated,  swift,  lightning  stroke  in  the  hour  of 
battle,  must  compensate  for  inferiority  of  numbers.  Napoleon,  Frederick  the 
Great,  and  Charles  the  XII.,  have  illustrated  these  facts,  and  they  have  become 
the  most  familiar  lessons  of  the  soldier.  But,  with  proper  strategy,  in  my 


THE  THIRD  YEAR  OF  THE  WAR.  133 

opinion,  we  need  seldom  fight  superior  forces.  Look  at  the  position  of  all  our 
armies  now.  We  are  remaining  listlessly  waiting  for  the  enemy  to  mass  his 
forces  and  men  upon  us.  Can  any  one  contemplate  this  attitude  of  our  armies, 
and  not  feel  utterly  astonished  at  our  policy,  and  the  repose  into  which  we  have 
sunk  on  every  hand  ?  Where  is  that  activity  which  should  belong  to  inferior 
forces  ?  It  is  rather  to  be  found  among  our  enemies,  whose  superior  numbers 
would  entitle  them  to  the  repose  which  we  have  quietly  assumed. 


134  THE  THIKD  YEAK  OF  THE  WAE. 


CHAPTER  VI. 

Political  Movements  in  the  Fall  of  1863.— The  "  Peace  Party"  in  the  North.— The 
Yankee  Fall  Elections. — The  War  Democrats  in  the  North. — The  South's  Worst 
Enemies. — Yankee  Self-Glorification. — Farragut's  Dinner-Party. — The  Russian  Ban 
quet. — Russia  and  Yankeedom. — The  Poles  and  the  Confederates. — THE  POLITICAL 
TROUBLES  IN  KENTUCKY. — Bramlette  and  Wickclifte. — The  Democratic  Platform  in 
Kentucky. — Political  Ambidexterity. — Burnside's  Despotic  Orders. — The  Kentucky 
"Board  of  Trade."— An  Election  by  Bayonets. — The  Fate  of  Kentucky  Sealed.— OUR 
EUROPEAN  RELATIONS. — Dismissal  of  the  Foreign  Consuls  in  the  Confederacy. — 
Seizure  of  the  Confederate  "Rams"  in  England. — The  Confederate  Privateers. — 
Their  Achievements. — British  Interests  in  Privateering. — The  Profits  of  So-called 
"Neutrality." — NAVAL  AFFAIRS  OF  THE  CONFEDERACY. — Embarrassments  of  Our 
Naval  Enterprise. — The  Naval  Structures  of  the  Confederates. — LEE'S  FLANK  MOVE 
MENT  IN  VIRGINIA. — Affair  of  Bristoe  Station. — Failure  of  Lee's  Plans. — Meade's 
Escape  to  Centreville. — Imboden's  Operations  in  the  Valley. — Capture  of  Charlestown. 
— OPERATIONS  AT  RAPPAHANNOCK  BRIDGE. — Kelley's  Ford. — Surprise  and  Capture  of 
Hayes'  and  Hoke's  Brigades. — Gallantry  of  Colonel  Godwin. — Lee's  Army  on  the 
Rapidan. — THE  AFFAIR  OF  GERMANIA  FORD. — Meade  Foiled. — The  "On-to-Rieh- 
mond"  Delayed. 

WE  must  take  the  reader's  attention  from  military  campaigns 
to  certain  political  movements,  which,  in  the  fall  of  1863,  ap 
parently  involved  more  or  less  distinctly  the  fortunes  of  the 
war. 

The  long-continued  delusion,  indulged  by  Southern  men,  of 
"  a  peace  party"  in  the  North,  which  would  eventually  compel 
peace  on  the  terms  of  the  Confederacy,  is  to  be  compared  to 
that  similar  delusion  of  Northern  politicians,  which  insisted 
that  "  a  Union  party"  existed  in  the  South,  and  that  it  was 
only  temporarily  suppressed  by  a  faction.  There  was  not  the 
least  foundation  in  fact  for  either  of  these  opinions ;  and  the 
agreeable  confidence  of  the  South,  in  its  supposed  friends  in  the 
North,  was  to  be  rudely  dispelled  by  events  that  admitted  of 
but  one  construction.  The  South  had  mistaken  for  substantial 
tokens  of  public  sentiment  the  clamors  and  exaggerations  of 
party  elections.  The  Democratic  party  in  the  North  went  into 
the  fall  elections  of  1863,  on  the  issue  of  a  general  opposition 
to  the  Lincoln  Administration  ;  at  the  same  time,  promising  a 
vigorous  "  constitutional"  prosecution  of  the  war,  while  their 


THE  THIRD  YEAR  OF  THE  WAR.  135 

vague  allusions  to  an  impossible  peace  and  platitudes  of  fra 
ternal  sentiment  were  merely  intended  to  catch  favor  in  the 
South,  and  really  meant  nothing.  Even  Mr.  Seymour,  of  New 
York,  managed,  while  cozening  the  South,  to  maintain,  on  the 
other  hand,  a  cordial  understanding  with  the  authorities  at 
Washington ;  and  he  found  it  necessary  to  conclude  one  of  his 
finest  speeches  by  saying,  "  never  have  I  embarrassed  the  Ad 
ministration,  and  I  never  will." 

But  even  on  its  moderate  issues,  with  reference  to  the  war, 
which,  as  we  have  seen,  proposed  only  certain  constitutional 
limitations,  the  Democratic  party  in  the  North  was  badly  beaten 
in  the  fall  elections.  From  Minnesota  to  Maine,  the  Democrats 
were  defeated.  In  the  latter,  which  was  supposed  to  be  the 
least  fanatical  of  the  New  England  States,  the  Republicans 
carried  the  election  by  an  overwhelming  majority.  In  Ohio, 
Yallandigham  was  defeated.  He  was  still  in  exile.  Yoorhies, 
who  had  proclaimed  doctrines  somewhat  similar  to  his,  in  a 
neighboring  State,  narrowly  escaped  being  lynched  by  the 
soldiers.  The  elections  were  followed  by  a  remarkable  period 
of  political  quiet  in  the  North.  Those  who  had  the  courage  to 
confront  the  administration  of  Lincoln,  had  either  been  sup 
pressed  by  the  strong  hand  of  lawless  power,  or  had  supinely 
sought  safety  in  silence.  The  overthrow  of  free  government  in 
the  North  was  complete. 

The  South  was  not  easily  imposed  upon  by  that  organized 
hypocrisy,  the  War  Democracy  of  the  North.  While  it  pro 
fessed  constitutional  moderation  in  the  conduct  of  the  war,  it 
aimed  at  the  reconstruction  of  the  Union,  which  was  only  a 
different  phrase  for  the  military  conquest  of  the  South.  It 
must  be  observed  that  so  far  as  questions  of  the  constitutional 
conduct  of  the  authorities  at  Washington  were  made  in  the 
North,  they  were  questions  entirely  between  their  domestic 
parties,  which  did  not  properly  interest  the  people  of  the  Con 
federacy,  inasmuch  as  their  demand  for  independence,  simple 
and  absolute,  had  nothing  to  do  with  the  modifications  of  the 
different  parties  which  opposed  it.  Indeed,  with  regard  to  this 
demand,  the  War  Democrat  at  the  North  was  a  far  more 
dangerous  enemy  to  the  Confederacy  than  the  open  and  avowed 
Abolitionist.  The  former  WT as  more  plausible;  his  programme 
of  reconstruction  carried  an  appearance  of  possibility  to  entice 


136  THE  THIRD  YEAR  OF  THE  WAR. 

the  popular  faith  which  that  of  naked  conquest  did  not  possess. 
But  both  programmes — that  of  the  War  Democrat  and  that  of 
the  Abolitionist — were  equally  fatal  to  the  Confederacy :  as  it 
mattered  not  what  was  the  formula  of  subjugation,  if  the 
people  of  the  South  once  placed  themselves  within  the  power 
of  their  treacherous  enemies,  and  submitted  to  any  form  of  their 
authority. 

The  North  had  yet  shown  no  real  disposition  to  abandon  the 
war.  The  Yankees  wrere  still  busy  with  the  game  of  self-glori 
fication.  Their  conceit,  their  love  of  display,  their  sensations 
amused  the  world.  Their  favorite  generals  were  all  Napoleons; 
in  the  cities  mobs  of  admirers  chased  them  from  hotel  to  hotel ; 
in  the  New  England  towns  deputations  of  school-girls  kissed 
them  in  public.  Farragut,  their  successful  admiral,  was  enter 
tained  in  New  York  with  feasts,  where  a  plaster  of  ice-cream 
represented  the  American  Eagle,  and  miniature  ships,  built  of 
sticks  of  candy,  loaded  the  table.  These  childish  displays  and 
vain  glory  had  culminated  in  an  immense  banquet  given  to  a 
Russian  fleet  in  the  harbor  of  New  York,  at  which  distinguished 
Yankee  orators  declared  that  the  time  had  come  when  Russia 
and  the  United  States  were  to  be  taken  as  twins  in  civilization 
and  power,  to  hold  in  subjection  all  others  of  Christendom,  and 
to  accomplish  the  "  destiny"  of  the  nineteenth  century. 

And  really  this  festive  fervor  but  gave  insolent  expression 
to  an  idea  that  had  long  occupied  thoughtful  minds  in  distant 
quarters  of  the  world.  Christendom  was  called  upon  to  wit 
ness  two  political  murders.  While  twenty  millions  of  Yankees 
sought  to  strangle  the  Southern  Confederacy,  fifty  millions  of 
Muscovites  combined  to  keep  ten  or  twelve  millions  of  Poles 
under  a  detested  yoke.  In  their  infamous  attempt  upon  Poland, 
Russians  tried  to  pass  themselves  off  as  the  defenders  of  liberal 
ideas  against  Polish  aristocracy ;  and  it  was  declared  that  the 
Polish  nobility  was  in  rebellion  in  order  not  to  be  forced  to 
emancipate  the  serfs.  u  Russia  and  the  United  States,"  said  a 
French  writer  of  the  time,  "proclaim  the  liberty  of  the  serf 
and  the  emancipation  of  the  slave,  but  in  return  both  seek  to 
reduce  to  slavery  all  who  defend  liberty  and  independence." 

Liberty  of  the  press,  of  speech,  of  public  meetings,  even  the 
venerable  privilege  of  habeas  corpus,  inherited  from  England, 
had  already  been  put  under  the  feet  of  Abraham  Lincoln. 


THE  THIRD  YEAR  OF  THE  WAR.  137 

While  the  Democratic  party  was  timidly  protesting  in  the 
Northern  States,  Mr.  Lincoln  had  prefaced  the  farce  of  the 
fall  elections  in  the  North  by  an  outrage  upon  the  ballot  in 
Kentucky,  which  Yankee  Democrats  were  too  weak  or  too  dis 
honest  to  resent. 

A  history  of  the  Kentucky  troubles,  in  some  details,  is  the 
best  commentary  we  can  choose  from  events,  upon  the  condi 
tion  to  which  the  whole  system  of  political  liberty  had  fallen 
in  the  North. 

THE    POLITICAL    TROUBLES    IN    KENTUCKY. 

In  the  last  days  of  August,  1862,  the  Hon.  Beriah  Magoffin 
resigned  his  office  as  Governor  of  the  State  of  Kentucky.  From 
causes  into  which  it  is  not  necessary  now  to  enter,  he  had  in 
curred  the  suspicion  of  a  great  majority  of  the  Union  party, 
and  through  the  Legislature  they  had  succeeded  in  divesting 
him  of  all  real  p6wer  in  the  government.  The  executive  con 
trol  of  the  State  had  rapidly  fallen  into  the  hands  of  the  mili 
tary  officers  of  the  United  States,  and  for  months  the  people 
had  been  subject  to  martial  law  in  all  its  oppressiveness,  with 
out  its  declaration  in  form.  Under  these  circumstances,  and 
for  the  purpose  of  relieving  the  people,  and  especially  that  por 
tion  of  them  known  as  "  Southern-rights  Men,"  who  had  been 
the  peculiar  objects  of  persecution,  Mr.  Magoffin,  in  a  pub 
lished  letter,  declared  his  willingness  to  resign  whenever  he 
could  be  assured  of  the  election  of  a  successor  of  conservative 
views,  who,  commanding  the  confidence  at  the  same  time  of 
the  Administration  at  Washington  and  of  the  people  of  Ken 
tucky,  would  be  able  and  willing  to  secure  every  peaceful 
citizen  in  the  exercise  of  the  rights  guaranteed  to  him  by  the 
Constitution  and  laws.  James  F.  Robinson,  then  a  member  of 
the  Senate,  was  indicated  to  him,  and  he  consented  to  resign 
in  his  favor. 

For  the  August  election  of  1863,  Thomas  E.  Bramlette  was 
offered  as  a  candidate  for  governor.  Mr.  Bramlette  main 
tained  generally  the  rightfulness  of  the  suspension  of  the  writ 
of  habeas  corpus,  and  the  extension  of  martial  law  over  States 
where  war  did  not  exist,  and  gave  in  a  quasi  adhesion  to  Mr. 
Lincoln's  policy. 


138  THE  THIRD  YEAR  OF  THE  WAR. 

A  number  of  Kentucky  Democrats  presented  a  ticket  in 
opposition,  headed  by  C.  A.  Wickcliffe  for  governor,  and  pub 
lished  the  following  expressions  of  their  views,  as  comprising 
the  issues  of  the  approaching  election. 

"  We  cannot  consent  to  the  doctrine  that  the  Constitution  and  laws  are 
inadequate  to  the  present  emergency ;  that  the  constitutional  guarantees  of 
liberty  and  property  can  be  suspended  by  war. 

"  Our  fathers  certainly  did  not  intend  that  our  Constitution  should  be  a  fair- 
weather  document,  to  be  laid  away  in  a  storm,  or  a  fancy  garment  to  be  worn 
only  in  dry  weather.  On  the  contrary,  it  is  in  times  like  the  present  that  con 
stitutional  restraints  on  the  power  of  those  in  authority  are  needed. 

"We  hold  the  Federal  government  to  be  one  of  limited  powers,  that  cannot 
be  enlarged  by  the  existence  of  civil  commotion. 

"  We  hold  the  rights  reserved  to  the  States  equally  sacred  with  those  granted 
to  the  United  States.  The  government  has  no  more  right  to  disregard  the 
Constitution  and  laws  of  the  States  than  the  States  have  to  disregard  the  Con 
stitution  and  laws  of  the  United  States. 

"  We  hold  that  the  Administration  has  committed  grave  errors  in  confisca 
tion  bills,  lawless  proclamations,  and  military  orders  setting  aside  constitutions 
and  laws,  and  making  arrests  outside  of  military  lines  where  there  is  no  pub 
lic  danger  to  excuse  it. 

"  It  is  now  obvious  that  the  fixed  purpose  of  the  Administration  is  to  arm 
the  negroes  of  the  South  to  make  war  upon  the  whites,  and  we  hold  it  to  be 
the  duty  of  the  people  of  Kentucky  to  enter  against  such  a  policy  a  solemn 
and  most  emphatic  protest. 

"  We  hold  as  sacred  and  inalienable  the  right  of  free  speech  and  a  free 
press — that  the  government  belongs  to  the  people  and  not  the  people  to  the 
government. 

"We  hold  this  rebellion  utterly  unjustifiable  in  its  inception,  and  a  dissolu 
tion  of  the  Union  the  greatest  of  calamities.  We  would  use  all  just  and  con. 
stitutional  means  adapted  to  the  suppression  of  the  one  and  the  restoration  of 
the  other." 

Notwithstanding  these  resolutions,  which  so  carefully  sound 
ed  in  "loyalty,"  and  exhibited  the  usual  ambidexterity  of  the 
War  Democracy,  it  soon  became  evident  that  the  authorities 
at  Washington  were  determined  to  interfere  in  the  Kentucky 
election,  and  force  it  exactly  to  their  purpose.  Messrs.  Wolfe 
and  Trimble,  candidates  for  Congress  in  the  First  and  Fifth 
districts,  and  Mr.  Martin,  candidate  for  the  Legislature  in  Lyon 
and  Livingston  counties,  were  arrested  by  the  provost-mar 
shals. 

On  the  31st  of  July,  Burnside  declared  martial  law  in  Ken 
tucky.  The  following  is  a  summary  of  the  most  outrageous  of 
the  despotic  orders  which  followed  in  quick  succession  the  dec 
laration  of  martial  law. 


THE  THIRD  YEAK  OF  THE  WAK.  139 

1.  By  way  of  precaution,  the  people  are  informed  that  when 
ever  any  property  is  needed  for  the  use  of  the  United  States 
army,  it  will  be  taken  from  rebel  sympathizers,  and  receipts 
given  for  the  same  marked  "  disloyal,"  and  to  be  paid  at  the 
end  of  the  war,  on  proof  that  the  holder  is  a  loyal  man. 

2.  Rebel  sympathizers  are  denned  to  be  not  only  those  who 
are  in  favor  of  secession,  but  also  those  who  are  not  in  favor  of 
a  vigorous  prosecution  of  the  war,  and  of  furnishing  men  and 
money  unconditionally  for  that  purpose.     "  Loyalty"  is  to  be 
proved  by  the  vote  given  at  the  election. 

3.  County  judges  are  required  to  appoint  none  but  "loyal" 
men  as  judges  of  election,  notwithstanding  the  provisions  of 
our  laws,  which  require  the  officers  of  election  to  be  taken 
equally  from  each  political  party. 

4.  Persons  offering  to  vote,  whose  votes  may  be  rejected  by 
the  judges,  are  notified  that  they  will  be  immediately  arrested 
by  the  military. 

5.  The  judges  of  election  are  notified  that  they  will  be  ar 
rested  and  held  responsible  by  the  military,  should  they  permit 
any  disloyal  men  to  vote. 

In  addition  to  all  this  there  was  at  work  beneath  the  surface 
a  potent  machinery,  whose  labors  could  be  traced  only  by 
results,  for  the  work  was  done  in  darkness  and  in  secret. 

In  every  city,  town,  and  considerable  village  in  the  common 
wealth,  there  had  long  been  organized,  under  the  authority  of 
the  Secretary'  of  the  Treasury,  a  body  of  men  known  as  a 
"  Board  of  Trade,"  an  innocent  title,  little  expressive  of  their 
true  functions.  Under  the  same  regulations  of  the  Secretary, 
no  shipments  of  goods  fo  the  interior  of  the  State  could  be 
made  without  the  permit  of  the  United  States  custom-house 
officers  at  Cincinnati  or  Louisville.  In  order  to  obtain  such  a 
permit,  the  individual  applying  must  have  procured  the  recom 
mendation  of  the  "  Board  of  Trade"  located  nearest  to  his  place 
of  business,  arid  the  recommendation  was  given  to  none  but 
"  loyal"  men,  each  Board  establishing  its  own  test  of  "  loyalty." 
Without  such  recommendation  no  merchant  could  hope  to  add 
to  his  stock  by  importation — no  mechanic  to  replenish  the  ma 
terials  necessary  in  his  calling.  These  inquisitorial  bodies, 
therefore,  held  in  their  hands  the  absolute  fate  of  every  trades 
man  and  mechanic  in  the  State.  The  prosperous  merchant 


140  THE  THIRD  YEAR  OF  THE  WAR. 

and  needy  shopkeeper  were  alike  at  their  mercy.  The  trades 
man  and  mechanic  were  thus  left  to  choose  between  a  vote  for 
Bramlette  and  the  utter  ruin  of  their  business. 

Such  were  the  circumstances  under  which  the  election  of 
August  3d  was  begun.  In  twelve  counties  not  a  single  vote 
was  permitted  to  be  cast  for  WicklifFe.  In  eight  others  he  re 
ceived  less  than  ten  votes  to  the  county.  In  fifteen  others  he 
received  less  than  tifty  votes  to  the  county.  In  sixteen  others 
he  received  less  than  one  hundred  votes  to  the  county.  These 
fifty-one  counties  embraced  many  of  the  strongest  Democratic 
counties  in  the  State.  In  only  twenty-eight  counties  of  the 
State  did  Bramlette  receive  a  majority  of  the  population  en 
titled  to  vote.  Less  than  two-fifths  of  the  population  entitled 
to  vote  made  him  Governor  of  Kentucky.  Thus  was  the  fate 
of  Kentucky  sealed,  and,  on  the  1st  of  September,  Bramlette 
entered  upon  the  duties  of  the  office  into  which  he  had  been 
foisted  by  bayonets. 

We  have  briefly  seen  what  little  comfort  there  was  for  the 
Confederates  in  the  fall  elections  of  1863,  and  the  contemporary 
political  movements  in  the  North.  We  naturally  glance  from 
this  part  of  the  situation,  external  to  the  military  campaigns, 
to  the  European  relations  of  the  Confederacy.  Here  there  was 
quite  as  little  encouragement  for  the  South  as  in  that  other 
alternative  of  hope  outside  the  war — Yankee  politics. 

OUR   EUROPEAN    RELATIONS. 

Some  feeble  attempt  was  made  by  the  Confederacy  in  the 
fall  of  1863  to  reassert  its  dignity  by  the  dismissal  of  the 
foreign  consuls,  who  had  been,  oddly  enough,  allowed  for 
nearly  three  years  to  reside  in  the  Confederate  States,  and  exer 
cise  super-consular  powers  under  authority  granted  by  the 
government  with  which  we  were  at  war.  The  force  of  this  pro 
ceeding  was,  however,  much  impaired  by  the  fact  that  it  was 
attributed  to  certain  objectionable  action  of  the  British  consuls 
in  the  Confederacy,  and  not  based,  as  it  should  have  been,  upon 
the  conduct  and  bearing  towards  us  of  the  British  Government 
itself.  Put  upon  that  ground,  the  dismissal  would  have  marked 
distinctly  our  sense  of  British  injustice. 

We  have  referred  in  former  pages  to  the  prejudicial  effect 


THE  THIED  YEAR  OF  THE  WAB.  141 

of  so-called  British  "  neutrality  "  with  respect  to  the  Confede 
rate  States.  Another  instance  was  now  to  be  afforded  of  its 
unequal  and  unjust  disposition  in  the  seizure  by  the  British 
Government  of  two  two-thousand-ton  iron-clads,  combining  the 
ram  arid  monitor  principles,  which  were  being  built  for  the 
Confederacy  by  the  Messrs.  Laird,  at  Birkenhead.  The  seizure 
was  made  without  any  evidence  to  justify  it.  The  Messrs. 
Laird  were  forbidden  to  allow  these  vessels  to  leave  their  yard 
"  without  an  ample  explanation  of  their  destination  and  a  sus 
tainable  reference  to  the  owner  or  owners  for  whom  they  are 
constructed."  It  was  curiously  held  by  Lord  Russell  that 
"  Messrs.  Laird  were  bound  to  declare — and  sustain  on  unim 
peachable  testimony  such  declaration — the  government  for 
whom  the  steam  rains  have  been  built."  In  other  words,  with 
out  an  affidavit  or  other  legal  foundation  for  proceedings 
against  them,  these  gentlemen  were  required  to  come  forward 
and  prove  their  innocence. 

The  animus  displayed  in  this  proceeding  was  in  keeping  with 
the  whole  conduct  of  the  British  ministry  towards  this  country. 
They  suspended,  to  our  great  detriment,  the  law  of  nations 
which  allowed  captures  at  sea  to  be  taken  into  neutral  ports  for 
condemnation.  They  ignored  and  violated  their  own  solemn 
engagement  in  the  Treaty  of  Paris,  requiring  that  a  blockade, 
to  be  acknowledged  and  binding,  should  be  such  as  actually  to 
exclude  ships  from  ingress  or  egress.  They  allowed  their 
Foreign  Enlistment  Act  to  be  inoperative  against  our  enemy, 
permitting  them  not  only  to  supply  themselves  with  vast  quan 
tities  of  arms  and  ammunition,  but  even  to  recruit  their  armies 
from  British  dominions.  But  they  had  revived  against  us  a 
law  practically  obsolete,  and,  in  order  to  give  it  force  and 
make  it  applicable,  they  had  reversed  a  principle  of  law  to  be 
found  in  the  codes  of  all  free  countries. 

But,  notwithstanding  the  invidiousness  of  foreign  powers, 
especially  against  the  naval  efforts  of  the  Confederacy,  it  was 
a  matter  of  surprise  how  much  we  had  accomplished  upon  the 
sea  against  an  enemy  whose  navy  was  his  particular  boast.  A 
few  solitary  ships,  hunted  by  vast  navies,  had  maintained  in 
foreign  seas  a  warfare  that  required  not  only  the  loftiest  cour 
age,  but  the  most  consummate  skill,  the  most  sleepless  vigilance, 
and  the  most  perfect  self-reliance. 


142  THE  THIRD  YEAR  OF  THE  WAE. 

Two  years  had  passed  since  Semmes  commenced  his  crniso 
in  the  Sumter,  since  which  time  about  one  hundred  arid  fifty 
Yankee  vessels,  .valued,  with  their  cargoes,  at  ten  million 
dollars,  had  been  captured  by  vessels  under  the  Confederate 
flag.  From  the  first  appearance  of  the  little  schooner,  Jeff 
Davi#,  the  Confederate  navy  had  been  the  terror  of  the  entire 
Yankee  mercantile  marine.* 

The  effect  of  our  privateering  on  Yankee  commerce  and  ton 
nage  was  already  immense.  Since  the  commencement  of  the 
war,  three  hundred  and  eighty-five  vessels,  with  an  aggregate 
tonnage  of  more  than  one  hundred  and  sixty-six  thousand  tons, 
had  been  transferred  to  foreigners  at  the  port  of  New  York 
alone,  most  of  which  were  sailing  under  the  flag  of  Great 
Britain,  the  most  prominent  commercial  rival  of  the  Yankee. 
At  other  ports  the  same  practice  had  prevailed,  and  it  would 
be  fair  to  estimate  the  loss  of  Yankee  tonnage  under  it,  during 
the  past  two  years,  at  three  hundred  thousand  tons.  This  loss 
to  the  North,  as  a  matter  of  course,  involved  a  consequent  in 
crease  of  the  tonnage  and  power  of  its  rivals. 

In  the  first  six  months  of  the  year  1860  the  number  of  ves 
sels  cleared  at  New  York  for  foreign  ports  was  seventeen  hun 
dred  and  ninety-five,  of  which  eleven  hundred  and  thirty-three 
were  American  and  six  hundred  and  sixty-two  foreign — a  dif 
ference  of  nearly  one  hundred  per  cent,  in  favor  of  American 
vessels  ;  while,  during  the  same  period  of  the  present  year, 
there  had  been  twenty-one  hundred  and  ninety-seven  clear 
ances,  of  which  fourteen  hundred  and  fifty  were  foreign  and 
only  seven  hundred  and  forty-seven  American — showing  an 
increase  in  the  number  of  foreign  vessels,  and  a  difference  in 
their  favor,  as  compared  with  the  first  named  period,  of  about 
two  hundred  per  cent. 

The  Yankees  had  a  navy  which  was  daily  increasing,  and 
one  which,  in  war-making  power,  already  exceeded  vastly  any 
navy  in  the  world.  Yet  it  was  impotent  against  a  few  Con- 

*  A  report  was  made  to  the  Yankee  Congress  of  captures  by  Confederate 
cruisers  up  to  the  30th  of  January,  1864.  The  list,  which  was  not  complete, 
foots  up  193,  with  a  tonnage  of  89,704.  At  fifty  dollars  a  ton,  the  vessels  are 
valued  at  $4,485,200  :  the  cargoes,  at  one  hundred  dollars  a  ton,  are  estimated 
at  $8,970,400.  Total  value,  $13,455,500.  Sixty-two  were  captured  by  the  Ala 
bama,  twenty-six  by  the  Sumter,  and  twenty-two  by  the  Florida. 


THE    THIRD    YEAR    OF   THE   WAR. 

federate  cruisers  which  defied  its  power,  and  burnt  Yankee 
vessels  even  within  sight  of  their  commercial  marts; 

I  j  I  B  R  A  ii 

UNIVERSITY 

NAVAL    AFFAIRS    OF   THE    CONFEDERACY. 

CALIFOHM 

We  take  occasion  here  to  make  a  brief  summary  of  what 
had  been  accomplished  in  the  naval  aifairs  of  the  Confederacy 
since  the  commencement  of  the  war.  At  that  time,  but  seven 
steam  war  vessels  had  been  built  in  the  States  now  forming 
the  Confederacy  since  the  war  of  1812,  and  the  engines  of 
only  two  of  these  had  been  contracted  for  in  these  States.  All 
the  labor  or  materials  requisite  to  complete  and  equip  a  war 
vessel  could  not  be  commanded  at  any  one  point  of  the  Con 
federacy. 

To  these  disadvantages  was  to  be  added  the  notorious  incom- 
petency  of  the  Confederate  Secretary  of  the  Navy.  His  con 
tracts  were  injudicious ;  and  there  was  traced  more  or  less 
directly  to  his  mismanagement,  the  destruction  of  the  Vir- 
ginia-Merriinac,  the  Louisiana,  the  Mississippi,  the  vessels  in 
Lake  Ponchartrain,  bayou  St.  John,  the  Yazoo  and  Mississippi 
rivers,  and  elsewhere. 

Yet  the  department,  with  all  its  drawbacks,  could  now 
exhibit  results  of  no  mean  order.  It  had  erected  a  powder- 
mill,  which  supplied  all  the  powder  required  by  our  navy  ; 
two  engine-boilers  and  machine-shops,  and  five  ordnance  work 
shops.  It  had  established  eighteen  yards  for  building  war 
vessels,  and  a  rope-walk,  making  all  cordage,  from  a  rope-yarn 
to  a  nine-inch  cable,  and  capable  of  turning  out  eight  thousand 
per  month. 

Of  vessels  not  iron-clad,  the  department  had  purchased  and 
otherwise  acquired  and  converted  to  war  vessels,  forty-four. 

Had  built  and  completed  as  war  vessels,  twelve. 

Had  partially  constructed  and  destroyed  to  save  from  the 
enemy,  ten.fr 

And  had  now  under  construction,  nine. 

Of  iron-clad  vessels,  it  had  completed  and  had  now  in  com 
mission,  fourteen. 

Had  completed  and  destroyed,  or  lost  by  capture,  four. 


THE   TRIED   YEAE   OF   THE   WAE. 

Had  in  progress  of  construction  and  in  various  stages  of  for 
wardness,  twenty. 

It  had,  also,  one  iron-clad  floating  battery,  presented  to  the 
Confederate  States  by  the  ladies  of  Georgia  ;  and  one  iron-clad 
ram  partially  completed  and  turned  over  to  the  Confederacy 
by  the  State  of  Alabama. 

Taking  into  consideration  the  poverty  of  our  means,  and 
the  formidable  naval  power  and  boundless  resources  of  our 
enemy,  at  the  beginning  of  this  war,  our  people  had  no 
sufficient  cause  for  shame  or  discouragement  in  the  operations 
of  our  navy. 


LEE'S   FLANK   MOVEMENT   IN   VIEGINIA. 

$ 

We  must  return  from  the  discussion  of  these  general  subjects 
to  the  military  campaign  of  the  later  months  of  1863,  and  take 
up  the  long-suspended  story  of  Lee's  army  in  Virginia. 

Since  its  campaign  into  Pennsylvania,  it  had  rested  on  the 
Kapidan.  In  October  General  Lee  was  prepared  to  put  into 
execution  a  campaign  which  promised  the  most  brilliant  re 
sults,  as  its  ultimate  object  appears  to  have  been  to  get  between 
Meade  and  Washington. 

With  the  design  of  bringing  on  an  engagement  with  the 
Yankee  army,  which  was  encamped  around  Culpepper  Court 
house,  and  extending  thence  to  the  Rapidan,  Lee's  army 
crossed  that  river  on  the  9th  instant,  and  advanced  by  way  of 
Madison  Court-house.  Our  progress  was  necessarily  slow,  as 
the  march  was  by  circuitous  and  concealed  roads,  in  order  to 
avoid  the  observation  of  the  enemy. 

General  Fitz  Lee,  with  his  cavalry  division  and  a  detachment 
of  infantry,  remained  to  hold  our  lines  south  of  the  Kapidan ; 
General  Stuart,  with  Hampton's  division,  moved  on  the  right 
of  the  column.  With  a  portion  of  his  command  he  attacked 
the  advance  of  the  enemy  near  James  City,  on  the  10th,  and 
drove  them  back  towards  Culpepper.  Our  main-body  arrived 
near  that  place  on  the  llth  instant,  and  discovered  that  the 
enemy  had  retreated  towards  the  Rappahannock,  removing  or 
destroying  his  stores.  We  were  compelled  to  halt  during  the 
rest  of  the  day  to  provision  the  troops,  but  the  cavalry,  under 


THE    THIRD    YEAR   OF   THE   WAR.  14:5 

General  Stuart,  continued  to  press  the  enemy's  rear  guard 
towards  the  Kappahannock.  A  large  force  of  Federal  cavalry, 
in  the  mean  time,  had  crossed  the  Rapidan,  after  our  move 
ment  begun,  but  was  repulsed  by  General  Fitz  Lee,  and  pur 
sued  towards  Brandy  Station. 

Near  that  place  the  commands  of  Stuart  and  Lee  united,  on 
the  afternoon  of  the  llth,  and,  after  a  severe  engagement, 
drove  the  enemy's  cavalry  across  the  Rappahannock,  with 
heavy  loss. 

On  the  morning  of  the  12th,  the  army  marched  in  two 
columns,  with  the  design  of  reaching  the  Orange  and  Alexan 
dria  railroad,  north  of  the  river,  and  interrupting  the  retreat  of 
the  enemy. 

After  a  skirmish  with  some  of  the  Federal  cavalry  at  Jeffer- 
sonton,  we  reached  the  Rappahannock  at  Warrenton  Springs, 
in  the  afternoon,  where  the  passage  of  the  river  was  disputed 
by  cavalry  and  artillery.  The  enemy  was  quickly  driven  off 
by  a  detachment  of  our  cavalry,  aided  by  a  small  force  of  in 
fantry  and  a  battery.  Early  next  morning,  13th,  the  march 
was  resumed,  and  the  two  columns  united  at  Warrenton  in  the 
afternoon,  when  another  halt  was  made  to  supply  the  troops 
with  provisions.  The  enemy  fell  back  rapidly  along  the  line 
of  the  railroad,  and  early  on  the  14th  the  pursuit  was  con 
tinued,  a  portion  of  the  army  moving  by  way  of  New  Balti 
more  towards  Bristoe  Station,  and  the  rest,  accompanied  by 
the  main  body  of  the  cavalry,  proceeded  to  the  same  point  by 
Auburn  Mills  and  Greenwich.  Near  the  former  place  a 
skirmish  took  place  between  General  Swell's  advance  and  the 
rear  guard  of  the  enemy,  which  was  forced  back  and  rapidly 
pursued. 

The  retrdat  of  the  enemy  was  conducted  by  several  direct 
parallel  roads,  while  our  troops  were  compelled  to  march  by 
difficult  and  circuitous  routes.  We  were  consequently  unable 
to  intercept  him.  General  Hill  arrived  first  at  Bristoe  Station, 
where  his  advance,  consisting  of  two  brigades,  became  engaged 
with  a  force  largely  superior  in  numbers,  posted  behind  the 
railroad  embankment. 

The  action  of  Bristoe  Station  was  a  disastrous  affair  for  the 
Confederates.  Hill's  brigades  were  repulsed  with  considerable 
loss  in  killed  and  wounded,  and  the  loss  of  five  pieces  of 

10 


146  THE  THIRD  YEAR  OF  THE  WAR. 

artillery.  The  Yankees  reported  their  loss  at  fifty-one  killed 
and  three  hundred  twenty-nine  wounded,  and  claimed  to  have 
captured  four  hundred  and  fifty  prisoners. 

The  repulse  at  Bristoe  proved  the  end  of  General  Lee's 
plans,  so  far  as  they  embraced  the  view  of  getting  on  Meade's 
communications,  or  reaching  Centreville  before  him.  Before 
the  rest  of  the  troops  could  be  brought  up  to  Hill's  assistance 
and  the  position  of  the  enemy  ascertained,  Meade  retreated 
across  Broad  Run.  The  next  morning  he  was  reported  to  be 
fortifying  beyond  Bull  Run,  extending  his  line  towards  the 
Little  River  Turnpike. 

The  vicinity  of  the  entrenchments  around  Washington  and 
Alexandria  rendered  it  useless  to  turn  his  new  position,  as  it 
was  apparent  that  he  could  readily  retire  to  them,  and  would 
decline  an  engagement  unless  attacked  in  his  fortifications.  A 
further  advance  was  therefore  deemed  unnecessary,  and  after 
destroying  the  railroad  from  Cub  Run  southwardly  to  the 
Rappahannock,  the  army  returned  on  the  18th  to  the  line  of 
that  river,  leaving  the  cavalry  in  the  enemy's  front. 

The  fall  campaign  in  Virginia  must  be  confessed  a  failure. 
It  was  an  attempt  by  Lee  to  flank  Meade  and  get  between  him 
and  Washington.  Unfortunately  the  enemy  appears  to  have 
become  cognizant  of  the  plan  at  the  moment  of  its  execution, 
and  to  have  retreated  with  sufficient  deliberation  to  destroy  all 
their  stores  that  they  did  not  carry  off  to  the  fortifications  of 
Centreville.  It  was  impossible  to  follow  them,  for  the  country 
was  a  desert  in  which  our  army  could  not  live,  while  the  enemy 
would  be  at  the  door  of  the  magazines  in  Washington. 

But  while  General  Lee's  flank  movement  had  thus  terminated 
in  disappointment,  a  contemporary  and  accompanying  opera 
tion  in  the  Yalley  district  had  been  most  fortunate.  When 
the  movement  of  the  army  from  the  Rapidan  commenced, 
General  Imboden  was  instructed  to  advance  down  the  Yalley 
and  guard  the  gaps  of  the  mountains  on  General  Lee's  left. 
This  duty  was  well  performed  by  that  officer,  and  on  the  18th 
October  he  marched  upon  Charlestown,  and  succeeded  by  a 
well-concerted  plan  in  surrounding  the  place.  Imboden  found 
the  enemy  occupying  the  court-house,  jail,  and  some  con 
tiguous  buildings,  in  the  heart  of  the  town,  all  loop-holed  for 
musketry,  and  the  court-house  yard  enclosed  by  a  heavy  wall 


THE  THIRD  TEAR  OF  THE  WAR.  147 

of  oak  timber.  To  his  demand  for  a  surrender,  Colonel  Simp 
son,  the  Yankee  commander,  requested  an  hour  for  consider 
ation.  Imboden  offered  him  five  minutes,  to  which  he  replied, 
"Take  me,  if  you  can."  Imboden  immediately  opened  on  the 
building  with  artillery  at  less  than  two  hundred  yards,  and 
with  half  a  dozen  shells  drove  out  the  enemy  into  the  streets, 
where  he  formed  and  fled  towards  Harper's  Ferry.  At  the 
edge  of  the  town  he  was  met  by  the  Eighteenth  cavalry  and 
Gilmore's  battalions. 

One  volley  was  exchanged,  when  the  enemy  threw  down  his 
arms  and  surrendered  unconditionally.  The  Colonel,  Lieuten 
ant-colonel,  and  five  others  who  were  mounted,  fled  at  the  first 
fire,  and  ran  the  gauntlet,  and  escaped  towards  Harper's  Ferry. 
The  force  captured  was  the  Ninth  Maryland  regiment  and 
three  companies  of  cavalry,  numbering  between  four  and  five 
hundred,  men  and  officers. 

As  was  expected,  the  Harper's  Ferry  forces,  infantry,  artil 
lery,  and  cavalry,  appeared  at  Charlestown  in  a  few  hours 
after  Imboden  had  fired  the  first  gun.  The  brave  Confederate 
retired,  fighting  back  this  largely  superior  force,  bringing  off 
his  prisoners  and  captured  property,  and  inflicting  considerable 
damage  upon  the  pursuing  column. 

In  the  course  of  these  operations  in  Virginia,  in  the  month 
of  October,  two  thousand  four  hundred  and  thirty-six  prisoners 
were  captured,  including  forty-one  commissioned  officers ;  of 
the  above  number,  four  hundred  and  thirty-four  were  taken  by 
General  Imboden. 


OPERATIONS  AT  RAPPAHANNOCK  BRIDGE. 

After  the  return  of  General  Lee's  army  to  the  Eappahan- 
nock,  it  was  disposed  on  both  sides  of  the  Orange  and  Alexan 
dria  railroad,  General  Ewell's  corps  on  the  right  and  General 
Hill's  on  the  left,  with  the  cavalry  on  each  flank.  To  hold  the 
line  of  the  Rappahannock  at  this  part  of  its  course,  it  was 
deemed  advantageous  to  maintain  our  communication  with  the 
north  bank,  to  threaten  any  flank  movement  the  enemy  might 
make  above  or  below,  and  thus  compel  him  to  divide  his 
forces,  when  it  was  hoped  that  an  opportunity  would  be  pre- 


148  THE  THIRD  YEAR  OF  THE  WAK. 

sented  to  concentrate  on  one  or  the  other  part.  For  this 
purpose  a  point  was  selected  a  short  distance  above  the  site  of 
the  railroad  bridge,  where  the  hills  on  each  side  of  the  river 
afforded  protection  to  our  pontoon  bridge  and  increased  the 
means  of  defence.  The  hill  on  the  north  side  was  converted 
into  a  tete-de-pont,  and  a  line  of  rifle  trenches  extended  along 
the  crest  on  the  right  and  left,  to  the  river  bank.  The  works 
on  the  south  side  were  remodelled,  and  sunken  batteries  for 
additional  guns  constructed  on  an  adjacent  hill  to  the  left. 
Higher  up,  on  the  same  side  and  east  of  the  railroad,  near  the 
river  bank,  sunken  batteries  for  two  guns,  and  rifle-pits,  were 
arranged  to  command  the  railroad  embankment,  under  cover 
of  which  the  enemy  might  advance. 

Four  pieces  of  artillery  were  placed  in  the  tete-de-pont,  and 
eight  others  in  the  works  opposite. 

The  defence  of  this  position  was  intrusted  to  Lieutenant- 
general  Swell's  corps,  and  the  troops  of  Johnson's  and  Early 's 
divisions  guarded  them  alternately,  Rodes'  division  being 
stationed  near  Kelley's  ford. 

The  enemy  began  to  rebuild  the  railroad  as  soon  as  we  with 
drew  from  Bristoe's  Station,  his  army  advancing  as  the  work 
progressed.  His  movements  were  regularly  reported  by  our 
scouts,  and  it  was  known  that  he  had  advanced  from  Warren- 
ton  Junction  a  few  days  before  the  attack. 

His  approach  towards  theRappahannock  was  announced  on 
the  6th  of  November,  and  about  noon  next  day  his  infantry 
was  discovered  advancing  to  the  bridge,  while  a  large  force 
moved  in  the  direction  of  Kelley's  ford,  where  the  first  attack 
was  made. 

General  Rodes  had  the  Second  and  Thirtieth  North  Carolina 
regiments,  of  Ramseur's  brigade,  on  outpost  duty  at  the  river. 
As  soon  as  he  perceived  that  the  enemy  was  in  force,  he  ordered 
his  division  to  take  position  in  rear  of  the  ford.  While  it  was 
getting  into  line,  the  enemy's  artillery  opened  upon  the  Second 
North  Carolina,  and  soon  drove  it  to  shelter.  The  Thirtieth 
North  Carolina  was  advanced  to  the  assistance  of  the  Second, 
but  in  moving  across  the  open  ground,  was  broken  by  the  con 
centrated  fire  of  the  enemy's  artillery,  and  took  refuge  behind 
some  buildings,  at  the  river.  The  enemy,  being  unopposed, 
except  by  the  party  in  the  rifle-pits,  crossed  at  the  rapids, 


THE  THIRD  TEAR  OF  THE  WAR.  149 

above  the  ford,  and  captured  the  troops  defending  it,  together 
with  a  large  number  of  the  Thirtieth  North  Carolina,  who  re 
fused  to  leave  the  shelter  of  the  houses. 

It  was  not  intended  by  General  Lee  to  attack  the  enemy  un 
til  he  should  have  advanced  from  the  river,  where  it  was  hoped, 
that  by  holding  in  check  the  force  at  the  bridge,  we  would  be 
able  to  concentrate  upon  the  other.  With  this  view,  General 
Johnson's  division  was  ordered  to  reinforce  General  Rodes. 

In  the  mean  time  a  large  force  was  displayed  in  our  front,  at 
the  bridge,  upon  receiving  information  of  which,  General  A. 
P.  Hill  was  ordered  to  get  his  corps  in  readiness,  and  Ander 
son's  division  was  advanced  to  the  river,  on  the  left  of  the  rail 
road.  The  artillery  was  also  ordered  to  move  to  the  front. 
General  Early  put  his  division  in  motion  towards  the  bridge, 
and  hastened  thither  in  person.  The  enemy's  skirmishers  ad 
vanced  in  strong  force,  with  heavy  supports,  and  ours  were 
slowly  withdrawn  into  the  trenches. 

Hoke's  brigade,  of  Early 's  division,  under  Colonel  Godwin 
(General  Hoke  being  absent  with  one  regiment  on  detached 
service),  reinforced  General  Hayes,  whose  brigade  occupied  the 
north  bank.  No  other  troops  were  sent  over,  the  two  brigades 
mentioned  being  considered  sufficient  to  man  the  works,  and 
though  inferior  to  the  enemy  in  numbers,  the  nature  of  the  po 
sition  was  such,  that  he  could  not  attack  with  a  front  more  ex 
tended  than  our  own. 

It  was  not  known  whether  the  demonstration  of  the  enemy 
was  intended  as  a  serious  attack,  or  only  to  cover  the  move 
ment  of  the  force  that  had  crossed  at  Kelley's  ford,  but  the  late 
ness  of  the  hour  and  the  increasing  darkness  induced  the  belief 
that  nothing  would  be  attempted  until  morning.  It  was  be 
lieved  that  our  troops  on  the  north  side  would  be  able  to  main 
tain  their  position  if  attacked,  and  that,  in  any  case,  they  could 
withdraw  under  cover  of  the  guns  on  the  north,  the  location 
of  the  pontoon  bridge  being  beyond  the  reach  of  a  direct  fire 
from  any  position  occupied  by  the  enemy. 

As  soon,  however,  as  it  became  dark  enough  to  conceal  his 
movements,  the  enemy  advanced  in  overwhelming  numbers 
against  our  rifle-trenches.  It  was  a  simultaneous  advance,  un 
der  cover  of  the  darkness,  of  the  entire  force  of  the  enemy. 
The  first  line  of  the  enemy  was  broken  and  shattered  by  our 


150  THE  THIRD  YEAR  OF  THE  WAK. 

fire,  but  the  second  and  third  lines  continued  to  advance  at  a 
double-quick,  arms  at  a  trail,  and  a  column  formed  by  compa- 
panies,  moving  down  the  railroad,  was  hurled  upon  our  right, 
which,  after  a  severe  struggle,  was  forced  back,  leaving  the 
battery  in  the  hands  of  the  enemy.  General  Hayes  ordered  a 
charge  of  the  Ninth  Louisiana  regiment,  for  the  purpose  of  re 
taking  the  guns  ;  but  his  centre  having  been  broken,  and  the 
two  forces  opposed  to  his  right  and  centre  having  joined,  ren 
dered  the  execution  of  his  purpose  impracticable.  Forming  a 
new  line  after  this  junction,  facing  up  the  river,  the  enemy  ad 
vanced,  moving  behind  our  works,  towards  our  left,  while  a 
line  which  he  had  formed  in  a  ravine,  above  our  extreme  left, 
moved  down  the  stream,  thus  enclosing  Hoke's  brigade,  and 
the  Seventh  arid  Fifth  Louisiana  regiments,  in  a  manner  that 
rendered  escape  impossible.  Nothing  remained  but  surrender. 
Many  of  our  men  effected  their  escape  in  the  confusion — some 
by  swimming  the  river,  and  others  by  making  their  way  to  the 
bridge,  amidst  the  enemy,  and  passing  over  under  a  shower  of 
balls.  General  Hayes  owed  his  escape  to  the  fact,  that  after  he 
was  completely  surrounded,  and  was  a  prisoner,  his  horse  took 
fright  and  ran  off,  and  as  the  enemy  commenced  firing  on  him, 
he  concluded  to  make  the  effort  to  escape  across  the  bridge, 
and  was  successful. 

Unfortunately  no  information  of  this  attack  was  received  on 
the  south  side  of  the  river  until  too  late  for  the  artillery,  there 
stationed,  to  aid  in  repelling  it.  Indeed,  the  darkness  of  the 
night,  and  the  fear  of  injuring  our  own  men  who  had  surren 
dered,  prevented  General  Early  from  using  artillery. 

Colonel  Godwin's  efforts  to  extricate  his  command,  were 
made  with  a  gallant  desperation,  that  has  adorned  with  glory 
this  disaster.  He  continued  to  struggle,  forming  successive 
lines  as  he  was  pushed  back,  and  did  not  for  a  moment  dream 
of  surrendering  ;  but,  on  the  contrary,  when  bis  men  had 
dwindled  to  sixty  or  seventy,  the  rest  having  been  captured, 
killed,  wounded,  or  lost  in  the  darkness,  and  he  was  completely 
surrounded  by  the  enemy,  who  were,  in  fact,  mixed  up  with 
his  men,  some  one  cried  out  that  Colonel  Godwin's  order  was 
for  them  to  surrender.  He  immediately  called  for  the  man 
who  made  the  declaration,  and  threatened  to  blow  his  brains 
out  if  he  could  find  him,  declaring  his  purpose  to  fight  to  the 


THE  THIRD  YEAR  OF  THE  WAR.  151 

last  moment,  and  calling  upon  his  men  to  stand  by  him.  He 
was  literally  overpowered,  by  mere  force  of  numbers,  and  was 
taken  with  his  arms  in  his  hands. 

Of  this  unfortunate  surprise,  which  cost  us  the  greater  por 
tion  of  two  brigades,  there  is  to  be  found  some  excuse  in  the 
circumstances  that  the  enemy  was  aided  by  a  valley  in  our 
front  in  concealing  his  advance  from  view,  and  that  a  very 
high  wind  effectually  prevented  his  movements  from  being 
heard.  General  Lee  declared,  with  characteristic  generosity, 
that  "  the  courage  and  good  conduct  of  the  troops  engaged  had 
been  too  often  tried  to  admit  of  question."  Our  loss  in  pri 
soners  was  very  considerable.  General  Rodes  reported  three 
hundred  of  his  men  missing.  General  Early's  loss  in  prisoners 
was  sixteen  hundred  and  twenty-nine. 

The  loss  of  the  position  at  Rappahannock  Bridge  made  it 
necessary  for  General  Lee  to  abandon  the  design  of  attacking 
the  force  that  had  crossed  at  Kelley's  ford ;  and  his  army 
was  withdrawn  to  the  only  tenable  line  between  Culpep- 
per  Court-house  and  the  Rappahannock,  where  it  remained 
during  the  succeeding  day.  The  position  not  being  regarded 
as  favorable,  it  returned  the  night  following  to  the  south  side 
of  the  Rapidan. 

THE  AFFAIR  OF  GERMANIA  FORD. 

We  shall  complete  here  the  record  of  General  Lee's  army 
for  1863  with  a  brief  account  of  another  affair  which  occurred 
at  Ger mania  ford,  on  the  Rapidan,  on  the  27th  of  November. 

This  affair  appears  to  have  been  an  attempt  by  Meade  of  a 
flank  movement  on  General  Lee's  position,  his  immediate  ob 
ject  being  to  get  in  the  rear  of  Major-general  Johnson's  divi 
sion.  This  division  was  composed  of  the  Stonewall  brigade, 
under  Brigadier-general  J.  A.  Walker,  and  Stuart's,  J.  M. 
Jones's,  and  Stafford's  brigades,  with  four  pieces  of  Anderson's 
artillery.  These  were  the  only  troops  engaged  in  the  affair  on 
our  side.  Opposed  to  them  were  Major-general  French's  corps 
(the  Third),  and  one  division  of  the  Fifth  corps.  The  enemy 
were  in  position,  and  opened  the  attack  before  our  forces  knew 
of  their  presence.  Their  object  was  to  make  a  sudden  attack 
from  their  concealed  position  upon  our  flank,  disperse  the 


152  THE  THIRD  TEAR  OF  THE  WAK. 

troops  and  capture  our  wagon  train.  They  not  only  failed  of 
their  object,  but  were  driven  from  the  field  with  considerable 
slaughter.  Our  loss  in  killed  and  wounded  was  about  four 
hundred  and  fifty  ;  that  of  the  enemy  was  certainly  double. 

If  Meade  had  designed  a  general  battle — and  the  fact  that, 
before  this  movement,  his  army  had  supplied  itself  with  eight 
days'  rations  argues  such  design — this  repulse  and  the  heavy 
rains  appear  to  have  damped  his  ardor ;  and  the  "  on-to- 
Richmond  "  was  reserved  for  another  year. 


THE  THIRD  YEAR  OF  THE  "WAR.  153 


CHAPTER  YII. 

The  Chattanooga  Lines.  —  Grant's  Command.  —  The  Military  Division  of  the  Missis 
sippi.  —  Scarcity  of  Supplies  in  Chattanooga.  —  Wheeler's  Raid.  —  Grant's  Plans.  —  He 
Opens  the  Communications  of  Chattanooga.  —  THE  AFFAIR  OF  LOOKOUT  VALLEY.  — 
Relief  of  Chattanooga.  —  THE  BATTLE  OF  MISSIONARY  RIDGE.  —  Bragg's  Unfortunate 
Detachment  of  Longstreet's  Force.  —  His  Evacuation  of  Lookout  Mountain.  —  The 
Attack  on  Missionary  Ridge.  —  Hardee's  Gallant  Resistance.—  Rout  and  Panic  of  the 
Confederates.  —  President  Davis's  First  Reproof  of  the  Confederate  Troops.  —  Bragg's 
Retreat  to  Dalton.  —  Cleburne's  Gallant  Affair.  —  LONGSTREET'S  EXPEDITION  AGAINST 
KNOXVILLE.  —  More  of  Bragg's  Mismanagement.  —  Insufficiency  of  Longstreet's  Force. 
—Difficulty  in  Obtaining  Supplies.  —  His  Investment  of  Knoxville.  —  An  Incident  of 
Personal  Gallantry.  —  Daring  of  an  English  Volunteer.  —  Longstreet's  Plans  Discon 
certed.  —  The  Assault  on  Fort  Sanders.  —  Devotion  of  Longstreet's  Veterans.  —  The 
Yankee  "  Wire-net."—  The  Fatal  Ditch.—  Longstreet's  Masterly  Retreat.—  His  Posi 
tion  in  Northeastern  Tennessee.  —  He  Winters  his  Army  there.  —  THE  AFFAIR  OF 
SABINE  PASS,  TEXAS.  —  THE  TRANS-MISSISSIPPI.  —  Franklin's  Expedition  Defeated.  — 
The  Upper  Portions  of  the  Trans-Mississippi.  —  The  Missouri  "  Guerillas."  —  Quan- 
trell.  —  Romantic  Incidents.  —  THE  VIRGINIA-TENNESSEE  FRONTIER.  —  Operations  of 
General  Sam  Jones.  —  x\n  Engagement  near  Warm  Springs.  —  The  Affair  of  Rogers- 
ville.  —  BATTLE  OF  DROOP  MOUNTAIN.  —  The  Enemy  Baffled.  —  Averill's  Great  Decem 
ber  Raid.  —  The  Pursuit.  —  THE  NORTH  CAROLINA  SWAMPS.  —  The  Negro  Banditti  in  the 
Swampa.  —  Wild,  Butler's  "Jackal."  —  His  Murder  of  Daniel  Bright.  —  Confederate 
Women  in  Irons.  —  Cowardice  and  Ferocity  of  the  Yankees. 


left  Rosecrans  in  Chattanooga  and  General  Bragg 
hopefully  essaying  the  investment  of  that  place.  The  defeat  of 
Rosecrans  at  Chickamauga  had,  despite  all  his  attempts  to 
qualify  it,  cost  him  his  command,  and  added  him  to  the  long 
list  of  the  victims  of  popular  disappointment.* 

*  In  an  official  statement  on  the  Tennessee  campaign,  the  Yankee  commander- 
in-chief,  General  Halleck,  attributed  the  defeat  of  Chickamauga  to  a  disobedience 
of  his  orders.  He  stated  that  Burnside  was  ordered  to  connect  his  right  with 
Rosecrans'  left,  and,  if  possible,  to  occupy  Dalton  and  the  passes  into  Georgia 
and  North  Carolina,  so  that  the  two  armies  might  act  as  one  body,  and  sup 
port  each  other.  Rosecrans  was  not  to  advance  into  Georgia  or  Alabama  at 
that  time,  but  to  fortify  his  position  and  connect  with  Burnside.  If  his  weak 
point  —  his  right  and  the  communications  with  Nashville  —  were  threatened,  he 
was  to  hand  over  Chattanooga  to  Burnside,  and  swing  round  to  cover  that 
flank.  At  the  same  time  forces  were  ordered  up  from  Memphis  and  other  quar 
ters  to  guard  that  side,  as  well  as  his  long  line  of  communications.  General 
Burnside,  as  alleged  by  Halleck,  entirely  disobeyed  or  neglected  his  orders,  and 
did  not  connect  with  the  Army  of  the  Cumberland,  leaving  a  great  gap  be- 


154:  „  THE   THIRD   TEAR   OF   THE    WAR. 

On  the  18th  of  October  General  Ulysses  S.  Grant  assumed 
command  of  the  Military  Division  of  the  Mississippi,  compris 
ing  the  Departments  of  the  Ohio,  the  Cumberland,  and  the 
Tennessee.  He  was  invested  with  plenary  powers,  and  a  mil 
itary  autocracy  that  extended  from  the  Alleghanies  to  the 
Mississippi.  Thomas  was  placed  in  command  of  the  Cumber 
land,  and  Burnside  commanded  at  Knoxville. 

Grant  proceeded  directly  to  Chattanooga.  He  had  tele 
graphed  Thomas  to  hold  the  place  to  the  last  extremity,  and 
the  latter  had  replied,  somewhat  ominously,  that  he  should  do 
so  until  his  army  "  starved."  The  fact  was,  the  Yankee  forces 
at  Chattanooga  were  practically  invested,  the  Confederate  lines 
extending  from  the  Tennessee  river  above  Chattanooga  to  the 
river  at  and  below  the  point  at  Lookout  Mountain,  below 
Chattanooga,  with  the  south  bank  of  the  river  picketed  to 
near  Bridgeport,  our  main  force  being  fortified  in  Chattanooga 
Valley,  at  the  foot  of  and  on  Missionary  Ridge  and  Lookout 
Mountain,  and  a  brigade  in  Lookout  Valley.  The  enemy's 
artillery  horses  and  mules  had  become  reduced  by  starvation. 
It  was  estimated  that  ten  thousand  animals  perished  in  supply 
ing  half-rations  to  the  Yankee  troops  by  the  long  and  tedious 
route  from  Stevenson  and  Bridgeport  to  Chattanooga  over 
Waldron's  Ridge. 

While  Bragg  thus  held  the  Yankees  in  Chattanooga  at  the 
point  of  starvation,  his  cavalry  had  not  been  idle  in  their  rear. 
General  Wheeler  had  crossed  the  river  in  the  face  of  a  division 
of  the  enemy  at  Cotton  Port  Ford,  and  proceeded  in  the  direc 
tion  of  McMinneville,  when  after  a  sharp  fight  he  captured  a 
large  train  and  seven  hundred  prisoners.  The  train  was  loaded 
with  ammunition  and  other  stores,  and  supposed  to  consist  of 
seven  hundred  wagons,  all  which  were  burned.  He  then  at 
tacked  McMinneville,  capturing  five  hundred  and  thirty  pris 
oners,  and  another  large  train,  destroyed  several  bridges,  an 
engine  and  a  train  of  cars.  He  then  moved  to  Shelbyville, 
where  he  captured  a  large  amount  of  stores  and  burned  them. 
The  amount  of  property  destroyed  by  him  was  almost  without 
precedent  in  the  annals  of  raiding. 

tween  the  two  armies.  It  was  claimed  by  General  Halleck  that  had  the  in 
structions  of  the  department  been  strictly  followed,  the  disaster  of  Chickamauga 
would  not  have  occurred. 


THE  THIRD  YEAR  OF  THE  WAR.  155 

On  arriving  at  Chattanooga,  General  Grant  seems  to  have 
at  once  appreciated  the  situation.  It  was  decided  that  Hook 
er's  command  at  Bridgeport  should  be  concentrated  ;  the  plan 
agreed  upon  being  for  it  to  cross  to  the  south  side  of  the  river, 
and  to  move  on  the  wagon  road,  by  the  way  of  Whitesides, 
to  Wauhatchie  in  Lookout  Valley.  On  the  28th  of  October 
Hooker  emerged  into  Lookout  Yalley  at  Wauhatchie,  with  the 
Eleventh  army  corps  under  Major-general  Howard,  and  Geary's 
division  of  the  Twelfth  army  corps. 

In  the  mean  time  Grant  had  planned  an  expedition  to  seize 
the  range  of  hills  at  the  mouth  of  Lookout  Yalley,  which  easily 
succeeded.  Hooker  proceeded  to  take  up  positions  for  the  de 
fence  of  the  road  from  Whitesides,  over  which  he  had  marched, 
and  also  the  road  leading  from  Brown's  Ferry  to  Kelly's 
Ferry;  and  Major-general  Palmer,  who  had  moved  up  to 
Whitesides,  also  took  position  to  hold  the  road  passed  over  by 
Hooker.  By  these  movements  Grant  calculated  to  secure  two 
good  lines  for  supplies  from  the  terminus  of  the  railroad  at 
Bridgeport ;  that  at  Whitesides  and  Wauhatchie,  and  that  by 
Kelly's  Ferry  and  Brown's  Ferry. 


THE    AFFAIR   OF   LOOKOUT   VALLET. 

The  Confederates  were  not  idle  observers  of  these  move 
ments.  On  the  night  of  the  29th  October,  a  night  attack  was 
made  by  a  portion  of  Longstreet's  forces,  with  the  hope  of 
opening  the  way  to  the  possession  of  the  lines  which  had  been 
lost  to  us  by  surprise,  and  with  the  immediate  object  of  cap 
turing  Hooker's  wagon-train.  The  expedition  unexpectedly 
found  itself  fighting  a  whole  Yankee  corps,  the  Twelfth,  under 
command  of  Slocum.  Our  force  consisted  of  but  six  regi 
ments.  By  the  vigor  of  our  attack  the  enemy's  lines  were 
broken.  At  one  time  the  Yankees  had  fallen  back  in  front, 
and  on  the  right  and  left  flanks,  until  wagon-trains  and  prison 
ers  were  captured  in  the  rear.  But  the  pressure  of  the  Yan 
kee  columns  from  Brown's  Ferry,  where  it  was  known  there 
were  at  least  two  corps,  threatened  the  integrity  of  our  posi 
tion.  It  had  become  critical  in  the  extreme  ;  and  an  order 
was  given  to  retire.  In  this  action  Jenkins's  brigade  suffered 


156  THE  THIRD  YEAR  OF  THE  WAR. 

severely  ;  its  loss  in  killed  and  wounded  was  said  to  be  three 
hundred  and  sixty-one. 

Grant's  possession  of  the  lines  of  communication  south  of 
the  Tennessee  river  was  no  longer  disputed.  By  the  use  of 
two  steamboats  he  was  enabled  to  obtain  supplies  with  but 
eight  miles  of  wagoning.  His  relief  of  Chattanooga  was  to  be 
taken  as  an  accomplished  fact. 


THE   BATTLE    OF   MISSIONARY    RIDGE. 

President  Davis  had  visited  General  Bragg's  lines,  and  on 
his  return  therefrom  made,  in  public,  certain  mysterious  allu 
sions  to  a  campaign  that  was  to  retrieve  our  fortunes  in  the 
West.  The  country  was  shortty  afterwards  surprised  to  learn 
that  Bragg  had  detached  Longstreet  from  his  front,  and  moved 
him  in  the  direction  of  Knoxville,  to  attack  Burnside. 

Of  this  event,  so  untoward  for  the  Confederates,  Grant  says, 
in  his  official  report :  "  Ascertaining  from  scouts  and  deserters 
that  Bragg  was  despatching  Longstreet  from  the  front,  and 
moving  him  in  the  direction  of  Knoxville,  Tennessee,  evi 
dently  to  attack  Burnside,  and  feeling  strongly  the  necessity 
for  some  move  that  would  compel  him  to  retain  all  his  forces 
and  recall  those  he  had  detached,  directions  were  given  for  a 
movement  against  Missionary  Ridge,  with  a  view  to  carrying 
it  and  threatening  the  enemy's  communication  with  Long- 
street,  of  which  I  informed  Burnside  by  telegraph  on  the  Tth 
November." 

Lookout  Mountain  was  evacuated  by  the  Confederates,  on 
the  24th  of  November,  being  no  longer  important  to  us  after 
the  loss  of  Lookout  or  "Wills'  Yalley,  and  no  longer  tenable 
against  such  an  overwhelming  force  as  General  Grant  had  con 
centrated  around  Chattanooga.  General  Bragg  abandoned 
also  the  whole  of  Chattanooga  Yalley,  and  the  trenches  and 
breastworks  running  along  the  foot  of  Missionary  Ridge  and 
across  the  valley  to  the  base  of  Lookout,  and  moved  his  troops 
up  to  the  top  of  the  ridge.  It  was  found  necessary  to  extend 
his  right  well  up  towards  the  Chickamauga,  near  its  mouth,  in 
consequence  of  the  heavy  forces  which  the  enemy  had  thrown 
up  the  river  in  that  direction.  The  ridge  varies  in  height  from 


THE  THIRD  YEAR  OF  THE  WAK.  157 

four  to  six  hundred  feet,  and  is  crossed  by  several  roads  lead 
ing  out  from  Chattanooga.  The  western  side  next  to  the  enemy 
was  steep  and  rugged,  and  in  some  places  almost  bare,  the 
timber  having  been  cut  away  for  firewood.  Our  pickets  occu 
pied  the  breastworks  below,  while  the  infantry  and  artillery 
were  distributed  along  the  crest  of  the  ridge  from  McFarlan's 
Gap  almost  to  the  mouth  of  the  Chickamauga,  a  distance  of 
six  miles  or  more.  In  addition  to  the  natural  strength  of  the 
position  we  had  thrown  up  breastworks  along  the  ridge  wher 
ever  the  ascent  was  easy. 

Determined  to  make  his  attack  upon  Bragg's  reduced  num 
bers  as  formidable  as  possible,  Grant  wraited  for  Sherman  to 
come  up :  Sherman,  strengthened  by  a  division  from  Thomas's 
command,  to  cross  the  Tennessee  river  below  the  mouth  of 
Chickamauga,  to  form  a  junction  with  Thomas,  and  advance 
towards  the  northern  end  of  Missionary  Ridge.  On  the  night 
of  the  23d  November,  Sherman,  with  four  divisions,  com 
menced  crossing  the  river.  By  daylight  of  the  24th,  eight  thou 
sand  Yankees  were  on  the  south  side  of  the  Tennessee,  and 
fortified  in  rifle-trenches.  By  noon  the  remainder  of  Sherman's 
force  was  over,  and  before  night  the  whole  of  the  northern  ex 
tremity  of  Missionary  Ridge  was  in  his  possession.  In  the 
mean  time,  Hooker  scaled  the  western  slope  of  Lookout  Moun 
tain.  On  the  night  of  the  24th,  the  Yankee  forces  maintained 
an  unbroken  line,  with  open  communications,  from  the  north 
end  of  Lookout  Mountain,  through  Cheat  Valley,  to  the  north 
end  of  Missionary  Ridge. 

On  the  25th  of  November,  the  enemy  prepared  for  his  grand 
assault.  The  Yankee  army  was  marshalled  under  Grant, 
Thomas,  Hooker,  and  Sherman,  and  did  not  number  less  than 
eighty-five  thousand  veteran  troops.  The  Confederate  army, 
under  Bragg,  Hardee  and  Breckinridge,  did  not  number  half 
so  many.  Longstreet's  Virginia  divisions  and  other  troops  had 
been  sent  to  East  Tennessee.  Had  these  been  present,  with 
their  steady  leader  at  the  head  of  them,  we  might  have  won  a 
victory.  As  it  was,  we  ought  to  have  won  the  day  ;  especially 
considering  the  advantages  of  our  position,  by  which  the  ranks 
of  the  enemy  were  exposed  to  an  artillery  fire  while  in  the 
plain,  and  to  the  infantry  fire  when  they  attempted  the  ascent 
of  the  hill  or  mountain. 


158  THE  THIRD  YEAR  OF  THE  WAR. 

Grant  deployed  his  immense  masses  in  two  heavy  lines  of 
battle,  and  sometimes  in  three,  supported  by  large  reserve 
forces.  The  spectacle  was  magnificent  as  viewed  from  the 
crest  of  Missionary  Ridge.  He  advanced  first  against  oar 
right  wing,  about  ten  o'clock,  where  he  encountered  Hardee, 
who  commanded  on  the  right,  while  Breckinridge  commanded 
on  the  left.  Hardee's  command  embraced  Cleburne's,  Walker's 
(commanded  by  General  Gist,  General  Walker  being  absent), 
Cheatham's  and  Stevenson's  divisions.  Breckinridge's  em 
braced  his  old  division,  commanded  by  Brigadier-general 
Lewis,  Stewart's,  part  of  Buckner's,  and  Hindman's  com 
manded  by  Patton  Anderson.  The  enemy's  first  assault  upon 
Hardee  was  repulsed  with  great  slaughter,  as  was  his  second, 
though  made  with  double  lines,  supported  with  heavy  reserves. 

The  attack  on  the  left  wing  was  not  made  until  about  noon. 
Here,  as  on  the  right,  the  enemy  was  repulsed  ;  but  he  was 
obstinate,  and  fought  with  great  ardor  and  confidence,  return 
ing  to  the  charge  again  and  again  in  the  handsomest  style, 
until  one  of  our  brigades  in  the  centre  gave  way,  and  the 
Yankee  flag  was  planted  on  Missionary  Ridge.  The  enemy 
was  not  slow  in  availing  himself  of  the  great  advantages  of  his 
new  position.  In  a  few  minutes  he  turned  upon  our  flanks 
and  poured  into  them  a  terrible  enfilading  fire,  which  soon 
threw  the  Confederates  on  his  right  and  left  into  confusion. 
Under  this  confusion,  the  gap  in  our  lines  grew  wider  and 
wider,  and  the  wider  it  grew  the  faster  the  multitudinous  foe 
rushed  into  the  yawning  chasm.  A  disgraceful -panic  ensued. 
The  whole  left  wing  of  the  Confederates  became  involved,  gave 
way,  and  scattered  in  unmitigated  rout.  The  day  was  lost,  and 
shamefully  lost.  Hardee  still  maintained  his  ground  ;  but  no 
success  of  the  right  wing  could  restore  the  left  to  its  original 
position.  With  cheers  answering  cheers  the  Yankees  swarmed 
upwards.  Color  after  color  was  planted  on  tlie  summit,  while 
muskets  and  cannon  poured  their  deadly  thunder  upon  the  fly 
ing  Confederates.  Grant  was  surprised  at  the  ease  with  which 
he  had  won  a  victory  such  as  he  had  never  before  obtained, 
and  attributed  it  to  the  dismay  of  the  Confederates  at  his 
"  audacity,"  and  the  "  purposeless  aiming "  of  our  artillery 
from  the  crest  of  the  ridge. 

Our  casualties  were  shamefully  small.     Granted  stated  his 


THE  THIRD  TEAR  OF  THE  WAR.  159 

own  loss  as  about  five  thousand  in  killed  and  wounded.  He 
claimed  to  have  taken  over  six  thousand  prisoners,  forty  pieces 
of  artillery,  and  seven  thousand  stand  of  small  arms. 

The  disaster  of  Missionary  Kidge  was  not  only  a  great  mis 
fortune,  but  a  grievous  disgrace.  Of  the  unhappy  event,  Pre 
sident  Davis  said :  "  After  a  long  and  severe  battle,  in  which 
great  carnage  was  inflicted  on  the  enemy,  some  of  our  troops 
inexplicably  abandoned  positions  of  great  strength,  and,  by  a 
disorderly  retreat,  compelled  the  commander  to  withdraw  the 
forces  elsewhere  successful,  and  finally  to  retire  with  his  whole 
army  to  a  position  some  twenty  or  thirty  miles  to  the  rear.  It 
is  believed  that  if  the  troops  who  yielded  to  the  assault  had 
fought  with  the  valor  which  they  had  displayed  on  previous 
occasions,  and  which  was  manifested  in  this  battle  on  the  other 
parts  of  the  line,  the  enemy  would  have  been  repulsed  with 
very  great  slaughter,  and  onr  country  would  have  escaped  the 
misfortune,  and  the  army  the  mortification  of  the  first  defeat 
that  has  resulted  from  misconduct  by  the  troops." 

On  the  night  of  the  25th  of  November,  Bragg  was  in  full 
retreat ;  and  all  of  his  strong  positions  on  Lookout  Mountain, 
Chattanooga  Valley  and  Missionary  Ridge  were  in -the  hands 
of  the  enemy.  His  army  was  put  in  motion  on  the  road  to 
Ringgold,  and  thence  to  Dalton. 

The  disgrace  of  this  retreat  was  somewhat  relieved  by  the 
spirit  of  the  brave  and  undaunted  Cleburne.  He  had  been 
left  to  bring  up  the  rear.  The  Yankee  pursuing  column,  num 
bering,  it  is  estimated,  about  ten  thousand  men  of  all  arms,  as 
saulted  him  before  he  reached  Tunnel  Hill.  This  column  con 
sisted  of  picked  troops,  who  moved  rapidly  and  fought  gal 
lantly  ;  but  Cleburne  succeeded  in  restraining  them  whenever 
he  encountered  them.  After  some  desultory  fighting,  he  suc 
ceeded  in  ambuscading  Thomas's  advance  at  Taylor's  Ridge. 
He  managed  to  conceal  his  forces,  including  his  artillery,  until 
the  enemy  got  within  a  few  paces  of  his  guns,  when  they  poured 
grape  and  canister  into  them  with  the  most  destructive  eifect. 
The  road  was  filled  with  their  dead  and  wounded.  Our  infan 
try  then  sprang  forward  from  their  covert  on  either  side  of  the 
road,  and  literally  mowed  them  down  by  their  well-directed 
shot.  The  enemy  fled  in  confusion,  leaving  two  hundred  and 
fifty  prisoners  and  three  flags  (the  latter  taken  by  the  artille- 


160  THE  THIRD  YEAK  OF  THE  WAK. 

rists)  in  our  hands,  and  from  one  thousand  to  fifteen  hundred 
killed  and  wounded  in  the  road.  Grant  desisted  from  pursuit, 
convinced  by  Cleburne's  lesson,  that  the  Confederates  were  not 
demoralized,  and  impressed  with  the  necessity  of  despatching 
reinforcements  to  aid  Burnside,  at  Knoxville. 


LONGSTKEET'S  EXPEDITION  AGAINST  KNOX.VILLE. 

"We  must  turn,  to  follow  the  fortunes  of  Longstreet's  ill-ad 
vised  and  worse-furnished  expedition  against  Knoxville. 

It  is  an  indisputable  fact  that,  when  Longstreet  was  sent  from 
General  Bragg's  lines,  he  was  furnished  with  no  subsistence 
whatever ;  and  in  way  of  transportation,  was  provided  only 
with  some  refuse  teams  by  Bragg's  quartermaster.  Despite 
these  difficulties,  he  succeeded  in  subsisting  his  army,  and  in 
capturing  an  aggregate  amount  of  stores  from  the  enemy,  which  ' 
alone  was  a  valuable  result  of  the  campaign.  At  Lenoir  Station 
he  captured  a  train  of  eighty-five  wagons,  many  of  them  loaded 
with  valuable  medical  stores.  At  Bean  Station  he  captured 
thirty  wagons,  a  quantity  of  forage,  and  some  horses.  In  the 
Clinch  Yalley  he  captured  forty  other  wagons — a  particularly 
rich  spoil,  as  they  were  mostly  laden  with  sugar  and  coffee. 

He  had  been  disappointed  in  the  force  which  was  placed 
at  his  command.  When  he  started  on  his  expedition,  Steven 
son's  division  was  then  at  London,  some  thirty  miles  from 
Knoxville.  Stevenson  was  hastily  recalled  to  Chattanooga  by 
Bragg,  who  was  suddenly  awakened  to  the  danger  of  an  attack 
on  his  front ;  and  the  first  train  which  carried  Longstreet's 
troops  through  to  Loudon,  returned  with  those  of  Stevenson. 
It  appears  that  Longstreet's  movement  was  thus  uncovered,  and 
that  he  wras  left  with  only  eleven  thousand  infantry  to  conduct 
the  campaign,  arduous  in  all  respects,  against  an  enemy  twice 
his  numbers. 

On  the  18th  of  November,  Longstreet  drove  the  enemy  from 
his  advance  lines,  in  front  of  Knoxville,  close  under  his  works. 
This  sortie  was  the  occasion  of  one  of  those  dashing  feats  of  in 
dividual  gallantry  which  demands  a  passing  notice.  A  breast 
work  was  charged  by  our  infantry.  They  winced  under  the 
galling  fire  of  the  enemy,  and  wavered,  when  Captain  Stephen 


THE  THIRD  YEAR  OF  THE  WAR.  161 

Northrop,  an  Englishman,  formerly  Captain  of  Her  Britannic 
Majesty's  22d  foot,  who  had  joined  our  ranks,  and  was  on,  duty 
in  Alexander's  artillery  battalion,  stationed  several  hundred 
yards  from  the  scene  of  conflict,  mounted  his  horse,  and  dash 
ing  across  the  plain — the  only  horseman  in  the  melee — rode  in 
advance  of  the  wavering  line,  up  to  the  very  works  of  the  en 
emy  ;  a  hundred  rifles  were  lowered  upon  him,  but  he  moved 
on,  and  rallied  the  wavering  line  ;  the  work  was  carried,  and 
JSTorthrop  borne  away,  with  a  minie  ball  through  his  shoulder, 
his  sword-scabbard  broken  by  another,  and  the  point  of  his 
sword  cut  off  by  yet  another.  His  escape  was  miraculous. 

Longstreet's  investment  of  Knoxville  was  nearly  complete. 
The  enemy  could  only  procure  supplies  from  one  side  of  the 
river,  and  the  Yankees  were  already  restricted  in  their  rations. 

But  in  the  mean  time  news  had  come  of  Braggrs  disaster,  and 
nothing  remained  for  Longstreet  but  to  trust  to  the  vigor  of  a 
decisive  assault.  It  is  not  improbable  that  a  few  days  more 
might  have  starved  the  Yankees  into  a  surrender ;  but  we 
could  not  wait  for  the  event.  The  enemy's  cavalry  were  al 
ready  on  the  line  of  the  railroad  between  Knoxville  and  Chick- 
amauga.  Communication  with  General  Bragg  had  been  sev 
ered,  and  London  was  threatened. 

Knoxville  was  well  fortified.  College  Hill  was  fortified  with 
a  heavy  fort,  carrying  a  siege-piece  of  artillery.  Another  fort 
was  thrown  up  on  the  hills,  near  the  Summit  House.  The  hill 
on  the  right  of  the  street  leading  from  the  public  square  to  the 
depot,,  had  a  strong  fort.  Near  the  Humphrey's  was  another. 
The  hill  known  as  Temperance  Hill,  had  two  heavy  forts. 
Another  rise  had  two  batteries.  The  heights  south  of  Knox- 
ville  were  also  fortified,  and  connected  with  these  immense  for 
tifications  was  one  continuous  line  of  rifle-pits  and  breastworks, 
from  the  extreme  east  of  Knoxville,  on  the  river,  to  the  west, 
on  the  river.  The  point  of  attack  was  a  strong  work  on  the 
north-west  angle  of  the  enemy's  line  (the  salient  angle  north 
west  the  immediate  point  to  be  assailed).  The  fort  was  on  a 
hill  of  considerable  eminence,  near  the  Kingston  road,  known 
as  Fort  Sanders. 

The  force  which  was  to  attempt  an  enterprise  which  ranks 
with  the  most  famous  charges  in  military  history,  should  be 

mentioned  in  detail.     It  consisted  of  three  brigades  of  McLaw's 

11 


162  THE  THIRD  YEAR  OF  THE  WAR.- 

division  :  that  of  General  "Wolford,  the  Sixteenth.  Eighteenth, 
and  Twenty-fourth  Georgia  regiments,  and  Cobb's  and  Phillips's 
Georgia  legions  ;  that  of  General  Humphrey,  the  Thirteenth, 
Seventeenth,  Twenty-first,  Twenty-second  and  Twenty-third 
Mississippi  regiments,  and  a  brigade  composed  of  General  An 
derson's  and  Bryant's  brigades,  embracing,  among  others,  the 
Palmetto  State  Guard,  the  Fifteenth  South  Carolina  regiment, 
and  the  Fifty-first,  Fifty-third  and  Fifty-ninth  Georgia  regi 
ments. 

The  signal  gun  broke  the  silence  of  the  early  dawn  of  the 
29th  of  November.  The  assaulting  column  of  the  Confederates 
moved  up  to  the  attack  over  the  slope,  in  front  of  the  fort,  in 
a  direction  oblique  to  the  Loudon  road.  A  heavy  artillery- 
fire  was  opened  upon  them  at  the  first  advance.  Despite  the 
storm  of  canister  which  howled  around  them,  on  came  the  de 
voted  men,  with  brigade  front,  slowly  pouring  over  the  rail 
road  cut,  and  anon  quickening  in  motion  as  the  ground  pre 
sented  less  obstruction,  until  at  last,  emerging  from  the  nearest 
timber,  they  broke  into  the  charge. 

Across  the  open  space  which  intervened  between  the  timber 
and  the  fort,  and  which  was  crossed  with  logs  and  the  stumps 
of  felled  trees,  the  Confederates  came  at  impetuous  speed.  But 
the  enemy  had  prepared  for  them  a  device  quite  worthy  of 
Yankee  ingenuity.  Among  the  stumps  which  covered  the 
slope,  the  Yankees  had  woven  a  network  of  wire.  Lines  of 
telegraph  wire  had  been  stretched  through  the  low  brush,  and 
coiled  from  stump  to  stump,  out  of  ordinary  view.  The  fore 
most  of  the  assaulting  column  stumbled,  one  falling  over  an 
other,  and  were  thrown  into  some  confusion,  until  the  cause  of 
the  obstruction  was  discovered.  The  enemy  took  advantage  of 
the  momentary  halt  and  confusion  to  pour  a  devouring  fire  upon 
the  broken  lines.  The  embrasures  of  the  fort,  and  the  whole 
line  of  the  parapet  blazed  at  once  with  discharges.  But  still 
the  gallant  Confederates  pressed  on,  their  battle-flags  of  red, 
with  cross  of  blue,  floating  triumphantly  above  their  heads. 
Rallying  over  the  temporary  obstruction,  leaping  the  stumps 
and  logs,  and  pushing  through  the  brush,  they  were  soon  within 
pistol  shot  of  the  fort.  The  enemy  reserved  his  fire.  He  had 
treble-shotted  some  of  his  guns,  and  others  were  loaded  with 
terrible  canister. 


THE   THIRD   YEAR   OF   THE    WAR.  163 

Suddenly  all  the  enemy's  guns  launched  forth  their  missiles 
of  death.  Our  lines  were  shattered  ;  but  with  a  terrible  cour 
age,  some  of  the  Confederates  sprang  into  the  ditch,  clambered 
up  the  glacis,  and  almost  side  by  side  with  the  Yankee  flag 
planted  their  own.  But  the  rear  of  the  assaulting  column  had 
given  way.  Others  remained  with  their  officers,  who  valiantly 
kept  the  lead  to  the  very  fort  itself,  and  in  the  attempt  to  scale 
the  glacis.  There  was  a  spatter  of  blood  and  brains  as  each 
head  appeared  above  the  parapet.  A  Confederate  captain, 
with  an  oath,  demanded  the  surrender  of  the  garrison,  as  he 
pushed  his  body  through  one  of  the  embrasures,  and  faced  the 
very  muzzle  of  the  cannon.  The  answer  to  him  was  the  dis 
charge  of  the  piece,  when,  rent  from  lirnb  to  limb,  his  mangled 
corpse,  or  what  was  left  of  it,  was  hurled  outward  into  the  air. 
His  comrades,  yet  essaying  to  get  within  the  work,  were  now 
subjected  to  the  fire  of  hand-grenades,  extemporized  by  cutting 
short  the  fuses,  and  the  shells  being  then  tossed  over  the  edge 
of  the  parapet.  Baffled  at  every  point,  and  unsupported  by 
the  rest  of  the  charging  column,  these  brave  men  surrendered, 
and  were  hauled  within  the  fort;  but  not  until  the  trench  was 
filled  with  the  dead  and  dying. 

In  this  terrible  ditch  the  dead  were  piled  eight  or  ten  feet 
deep.  In  comparatively  an  instant  of  time,  we  lost  seven  hun 
dred  men  in  killed,  wounded,  and  prisoners.  Colonel  McEl- 
roy  of  the  Thirteenth  Mississippi  and  Colonel  Thomas  of  the 
Sixteenth  Georgia,  had  both  fallen  mortally  wounded  in  the 
ditch.  The  Yankees  lost  in  the  action  not  more  than  twenty 
men  killed  and  wounded. 

Never — excepting  Gettysburg — was  there  in  the  history  of 
the  war  a  disaster  adorned  with  the  glory  of  such  devoted 
courage  as  Lougstreet's  repulse  at  Knoxville.  It  left  him, 
considering  the  consequences  of  Bragg's  defeat  at  Missionary 
Ridge,  with  no  other  alternative  than  to  raise  the  siege  and 
occupy  a  new  line  of  operations.  A  retreat  to  Bragg's  line 
was  not  contemplated,  and  he  decided  to  transfer  his  base  to  a 
point  where  he  could  threaten  Knoxville  from  the  opposite 
side  of  the  town,  and  establish  communications  with  Bristol, 
Lynchburg,  and  Richmond.  These  intentions,  it  is  said,  were 
known  to  President  Davis  in  advance,  who,  it  is  further  said, 
advised  with  General  Longstreet  on  the  subject,  and  left 


THE   THIRD    TEAK    OF   THE    WAK. 

to  his  discretion  the  plan  of  campaign  to  be  pursued  in  the 
future. 

It  was  in  the  exercise  of  an  independant  judgment,  that 
Longstreet  made  his  retreat  to  Russellville.  It  was  one  of  the 
most  fortunate  retrea-ts  of  the  war.  It  was  made  without  the 
slightest  loss.  It  evaded  a  large  column  of  the  enemy  at  Lou- 
don.  Its  immediatex  object  was  Rogers ville,  where  Longstreet 
expected  to  get  supplies  and  milling  for  his  army.  Our  forces, 
however,  being  pressed  by  the  enemy,  who  followed  them  to 
Bean  Station,  on  the  Cumberland  Gap  road,  turned  upon  the 
Yankees,  inflicted  upon  them  a  severe  defeat,  and  drove  them 
twelve  lines  before  Russell  ville. 

By  an  admirable  movement,  Longstreet  selected  a  position 
in  Northeastern  Tennessee,  where  he  could  hold  communica 
tion  with  his  superiors  in  Richmond,  and  intrenching  himself 
against  all  possibility  of  surprise,  he  proceeded  to  carry  out, 
what  remained  of  his  military  plans.  The  Army  of  the  Ohio 
was  weak,  and  he  knew  it.  It  was  strong  enough  to  hold 
Knoxville,  as  he  had  learned  by  sad  experience.  The  rein 
forcements  which  were  sent  from  Chattanooga,  were  with 
drawn.  He,  therefore,  organized  his  forces  for  conquest,  not 
necessarily  of  territory,  but  of  material  for  the  subsistence  of 
his  troops.  In  this  way  he  managed  to  overrun  the  entire  sec 
tion  of  the  State  east  of  a  line  drawn  from  Cumberland  Gap  to 
Cleveland ;  to  gather  within  his  lines  all  that  was  valuable  in 
supplies  of  food  ;  and  to  make  his  army  quite  self-subsisting  in 
a  tract  of  country  where  it  was  thought  it  was  impossible  for 
him  to  remain  without  external  aid. 

While  events  of  dominant  importance  were  taking  place  on 
the  lines  of  Generals  Lee  and  Bragg,  there  were  distant  and 
minor  theatres  of  the  contest,  which,  at  various  times  in  the 
fall  of  1863,  exhibited  some  remarkable  episodes  in  the  war. 
We  shall  make  a  rapid  resume  of  these  minor  events,  taking 
the  reader's  attention  from  the  Gulf  Coast  to  the  distant  regions 
of  the  Trans-Mississippi,  and  thence  to  the  frontiers  of  some 
of  the  eastern  States  of  the  Confederacy. 

THE    AFFAIR   AT    SABINE   PASS,  TEXAS. — THE   TRANS-MISSISSIPPI. 

An  engagement  with  the  Yankee  navy  had  occurred  at  Sa- 


THE  THIRD  YEAR  OF  THE  WAR.  165 

bine  Pass,  the  dividing  line  between  Louisiana  and  Texas,  on 
the  8th  of  September.  A  brilliant  victory  was  won  by  the 
little  Confederate  garrison  of  Sabine  Pass  against  the  fleet  of 
the  enemy.  Attacked  by  five  gunboats,  the  fort,  mounting 
but  three  guns  of  small  calibre,  and  manned  by  the  Davis 
Guards,  Lieutenant  R.  M.  Dowling,  assisted  by  Lieutenant 
Smith,  of  the  engineers,  supported  by  about  two  hundred  men, 
the  whole  under  command  of  Captain  F.  A.  Odium,  steadily 
resisted  their  fire,  and  at  last  forced  the  surrender  of  the  two 
gunboats  Clifton  and  Sachem,  badly  crippling  another,  which 
with  the  others  escaped  over  the  bar.  The  result  of  this  gal 
lant  achievement  was  the  capture  of  two  fine  gunboats,  fifteen 
heavy  guns,  over  two  hundred  prisoners  (among  them  the 
commodore  of  the  fleet),  and  over  fifty  of  the  enemy  killed  and 
wounded,  while  not  a  man  was  lost  on  our  side,  or  a  gun 
injured. 

This  demonstration  of  the  Yankees,  under  command  of  Gen 
eral  Franklin,  was  part  of  an  expedition  from  General  Banks' 
lines  against  Texas.  A  column  under  Washburne  had  moved 
by  railroad  to  Brashear  and  Bayou  Boeuf ;  and  another  Yankee 
column  had  been  taken  by  steamboats  to  the  mouth  of  Red 
River  to  go  to  Simmsport.  But  Franklin's  disaster  at  Sabine 
Pass  caused  him  to  abandon  his  part  of  the  movement;  and 
on  this  account,  and  also,  it  is  said,  the  low  state  of  water,  an 
expedition  elaborately  and  ambitiously  planned  by  Banks  was 
wholly  abandoned. 

In  the  upper  portions  of  the  Trans-Mississippi,  Confederate 
operations  had  assumed  an  irregular  character.  The  States 
beyond  the  great  river  possessed  many  advantages  for  the 
maintenance  of  their  defence.  In  provisions  they  abounded 
beyond  any  other  part  of  the  Confederacy.  In  the  various 
requisites  for  establishing  and  supplying  an  army  they  were 
by  no  means  destitute.  Through  Mexico  they  had  been  en 
abled  to  make  good  their  deficiencies,  to  some  extent,  by 
importation. 

Great  activity  seemed  to  pervade  the  Trans-Mississippi,  and 
brilliant  actions  performed  by  small  bodies  of  men  charac 
terized  it,  instead  of  sanguinary  and  resultless  battles.  The 
nature  of  the  country  and  the  requirements  of  the  situations 
had  no  doubt  wrought  a  considerable  change  in  the  character 


166  THE   THIRD   YE  AH   OF   THE   WAK. 

of  the  warfare  carried  oil  in  that  region ;  but  although  no 
signal  indications  of  strategic  skill  might  be  traceable,  marks 
of  dash  and  daring  were  plainly  discernible. 

But  while  Texas  and  Arkansas  still  maintained  formidable 
military  organizations,  in  unhappy  Missouri  the  Confederates 
were  well  nigh  driven  to  the  wall.  Quantrell,  the  famous 
partisan  chief,  was  compelled,  in  the  fall  of  1863,  to  make  his 
exodus  from  Missouri. 

Towards  the  middle  of  September  the  guerillas  reunited  at 
Blackwater,  and  were  ready  in  a  few  hours  to  leave  their  ren 
dezvous  for  their  march  South.  Cold  nights  and  occasional 
frost  had  warned  them  to  leave  Missouri,  and  like  poor  house 
less  birds  of  passage,  beaten  by  the  pitiless  storm,  they  sought 
a  more  genial  clime,  where  the  grass  was  green  and  Yankees  less 
numerous.  Missouri  would  afford  no  shelter  of  safety  after  win 
ter  had  set  in ;  the  bare  and  leafless  forests  no  hiding  places, 
and  the  pure  driven  snow  would  afford  to  the  enemy  the  best 
means  of  tracking  the  hunted  and  hungry  guerillas  whenever 
they  should  leave  their  holes  in  search  of  food.  Outlawed  by 
an  order  of  General  Blount,  proscribed  by  every  Yankee  offi 
cial,  the  citizens  warned  against  furnishing  food  or  shelter 
under  the  cruelest  and  severest  penalties,  the  very  earth  almost 
denying  them  a  resting-place,  the  gallant  three  hundred  broke 
up  their  rendezvous  and  left  for  the  plains  of  Texas. 

The  romantic  adventures  of  these  men  in  the  Indian  coun 
try  were  of  thrilling  interest.  "  At  one  time,  they  came  upon 
a  party  of  Yankees  near  Fort  Smith,  who  mistook  them  for 
comrades.  The  little  Confederate  command  was  drawn  up  in 
line  .of  battle,  motionless  as  statues,  with  Quantrell  at  their 
head  on  his  war-horse,  looking  grimly  at  a  brilliant  cavalcade  of 
horsemen  forming  beautifully  about  three  hundred  yards  in 
front.  The  whisper  ran  through  the  line,  "  It  is  old  Blount, 
and  he  thinks  we  are  Yankees  coming  out  to  give  him  a  recep 
tion  !"  It  was  true.  There  rode  General  Blount  and  staff, 
glittering  in  blue  cloth  and  gold  lace,  and  about  two  hundred 
of  his  body  guard ;  just  then  the  cavalcade  moved,  and  the 
band  commenced  playing  Yankee  Doodle.  Quantrell  moved 
also  ;  but  the  quick  eye  of  Blount  discovered  something  wrong 
and  called  a  halt.  But  the  guerillas  by  this  time  were  under 
full  gallop,  and  down  they  swept  upon  the  brilliant  cortege 


THE  THIRD  YEAR  OF  THE  WAR.  167 

like  an  avalanche  and  hurled  them  to  the  earth.  The  struggle 
was  short  and  fierce ;  the  shock  terrific,  as  guerilla  rode  over 
both  horse  and  his  rider,  and  dashed  out  the  brains  of  the  lat 
ter  as  he  passed.  Again  and  again  they  turned  and  fired, 
charged  and  recharged,  until  the  ground  was  strewn  with  the 
dead,  ambulances  overturned,  and  horses  flying  madly  in  every 
direction.* 

THE   VIRGTNIA-TKNNESSEE   FRONTIER."' 


The  frontier  in  which  we  include  the  vast  boti 
generally  between  General  Lee's  lines  in  Yirgfomrnimf-  East 
Tennessee,  was  one  of  the  most  important  of  the  minor  theatres 
of  the  war. 

What  was  known  as  the  Department  of  West  Virginia  and 
East  Tennessee,  was  under  the  command  of  Major-general  Sam 

*  A  stirring  episode  of  this  engagement  is  told  by  one  who  participated  in  it. 
We  give  it,  in  his  words,  as  a  characteristic  incident  of  the  romance  of  parti 
san  warfare : 

"Lieutenant-colonel  Curtis,  adjutant-general  on  General  Blount's  staff,  rode 
a  magnificent  horse,  richly  caparisoned,  and  was  himself  dressed  in  the  richest 
uniform  of  his  rank.  He  was  a  remarkably  handsome  man,  fair,  and  rosy,  eyes 
blue  as  those  of  the  fairest  blonde  of  his  own  clime ;  pale,  fair,  tall,  slender 
*  figure — with  features  as  beautiful  as  those  of  a  woman.  He  was  well  armed 
with  pistol  and  sabre,  and  used  them  gallantly.  He  sees  that  his  force  is  de 
feated,  and  determines  to  escape.  But  as  he  turns  his  horse's  head  he  encoun 
ters  the  fierce  eye  of  a  young  guerilla  as  handsome,  as  brave  and  as  well 
mounted  as  himself,  bearing  right  down  upon  him.  He  observes  the  adjutant- 
general  endeavoring  to  escape ;  calls  to  him  to  stop  and  fight.  He  does 
turn  to  meet  the  guerilla  now  swooping  down  upon  him  like  an  eagle  on  its 
prey.  The  Yankee  fires  a  long-range  gun,  but  misses  his  aim ;  he  draws  his 
six-shooter  and  rapidly,  nervously  discharges  the  contents  at  his  adversary, 
who  all  this  time  is  gaining  on  him  and  dashing  straight  at  him. 

"As  an  eagle  swoops  down  on  his  prey,  gracefully  and  grandly  ferocious, 
beautiful  even  in  the  act  of  destruction,  so  does  Peyton  Long,  the  young  hero, 
gallantly  bear  down  on  the  "  cute"  Yankee ;  he  reserves  every  shot,  while 
Curtis  is  wasting  his ;  he  dashes  upon  him — both  pause  for  an  instant  as  if  in 
mutual  admiration — but  only  for  a  moment.  Peyton  Long  watches  his  antag 
onist,  and  sways  his  body  to  the  left  to  escape  the  sabre  cut  of  the  Yankee ; 
the  next  instant  the  inevitable  six-shooter  of  the  guerilla  is  pointed  at  the  head 
of  the  splendid-looking  fellow ;  it  is  the  work  of  an  instant ;  Peyton  strikes 
like  an  eagle,  and  all  is  over !  A  shout  of  triumph  rose  from  the  throng  of 
guerillas,  who  had  ceased  the  fight  to  watch  the  encounter  between  this  well- 
matched  couple." 


168  THE  THIRD  TEAE  OF  THE  WAR. 

Jones,  one  of  the  most  active  of  Confederate  commanders.  Of 
events  in  his  department  we  must  make  a  rapid  summary, 
which,  however,  will  admit  some  detail  of  his  most  interesting 
operations. 

For  many  months  operations  had  been  active  in  this  De 
partment  to  cope  with  raids  under  the  energetic  direction  of 
the  somewhat  famous  Yankee  commander  General  Averill. 
On  the  26th  of  August  a  portion  of  General  Jones's  forces  en 
countered  the  enemy  about  a  mile  and  a  half  from  Dublin,  on 
the  road  leading  to  the  Warm  Springs.  Every  attack  made  by 
the  enemy  was  repulsed.  At  night  each  side  occupied  the 
same  position  they  had  in  the  morning.  'The  next  morning  the 
enemy  made  two  other  attacks,  which  were  handsomely  re 
pulsed,  when  he  abandoned  his  position  and  retreated  towards 
"Warm  Springs,  pursued  by  cavalry  and  artillery.  The  troops 
engaged  were  the  first  brigade  of  Jones's  army,  Colonel  George 
S.  Patton  commanding.  The  enemy  were  about  three  thousand 
strong,  with  six  pieces  of  artillery,  under  Brigadier-general 
Averill.  Our  loss  was  about  two  hundred  killed  and  wounded. 
The  enemy's  loss  was  not  known.  We  took  about  one  hundred 
and  fifty  prisoners  and  a  piece  of  artillery. 

On  the  6th  November  occurred  an  affair  at  Rogers ville, 
East  Tennessee,  which  was  a  considerable  success  for  the  Con 
federates.  Information  of  a  reliable  character  was  received  by 
General  Ransom  of  the  exact  position,  numbers  and  condition 
of  the  Yankees  at  Big  Creek,  four  miles  east  of  Rogersville. 
The  nearest  supporting  force  being  at  Greenville,  he  conceived 
the  idea  of  cutting  them  off  by  a  rapid  night  march  of  cavalry 
upon  their  front  and  rear.  The  attack  was  successful.  Among 
the  fruits  of  the  expedition  were  eight  hundred  and  fifty  pri 
soners,  four  pieces  of  artillery,  sixty  wagons,  and  several  hun 
dred  animals. 


BATTLE   OF   DROOP   MOUNTAIN. 

On  the  same  day  (6th  November)  occurred  an  important 
action  between  another  portion  of  General  Jones's  forces,  and 
the  redoubtable  Averill. 

At  nine  o'clock  on  the  morning  of  the  6th  of  November 


THE   THIRD   TEAR    OF    THE    WAR.  169' 

Echols'  brigade,  consisting  of  a  regiment  and  battalion  of 
infantry,  and  six  pieces  of  artillery,  came  up  to  the  support  of 
Colonel  Wm.  L.  Jackson,  commanding  Confederate  forces  in, 
the  Northwest  (who  was  closely  pushed  by  General  Averill), 
on  Droop  Mountain,  in  the  county  of  Pocahontas,  twenty-eight 
miles  north-east  of  Lewisburg.  The  entire  forces  of  the  two 
commands  thus  united,  amounted  to  about  fifteen  hundred 
infantry  and  dismounted  cavalry,  and  eight  pieces  of  artillery. 
The  position  of  our  men,  naturally  a  very  strong  one,  was 
selected  with  great  judgment  by  Colonel  Jackson,  on  the 
western  extremity  of  Droop  Mountain.  At  ten  o'clock,  the 
enemy,  who  had  remained  in  the  front  of  Colonel  Jackson 
since  daybreak,  with  a  force  amounting  to  seven  thousand  five 
hundred  mounted  infantry  and  cavalry,  and  eight  pieces  of 
artillery,  commenced  his  advance  upon  us,  by  posting  his  long- 
range  guns  on  an  eminence  to  our  right,  and  by  advancing  his 
line  of  skirmishers  upon  our  right  and  left ;  and  brisk  skirmish 
ing  then  ensued,  which  continued  from  time  to  time  until  the 
fight  became  general  between  our  infantry  and  dismounted 
cavalry  and  those  of  the  enemy. 

The  monstrously  unequal  combat  was  kept  up  for  several 
hours.  Our  men  fought  with  the  utmost  gallantry  and  deter 
mination,  and  stubbornly  maintained  their  position  against  an 
enemy  five  times  their  number  until  they  were  well  nigh  sur 
rounded.  Human  endurance  could  hold  out  no  longer ;  the 
troops  on  the  right  gave  away  before  overwhelming  numbers, 
while  the  enemy  were  rapidly  flanking  those  on  the  left.  Just 
at  this  stage  of  proceedings,  General  Echols,  seeing  that  if  he 
remained  longer  his  retreat  would  be  cut  off,  withdrew  the 
troops  from  the  field  and  ordered  a  retreat  in  the  direction  of 
Lewisburg.  Our  loss  in  killed  and  wounded  was  about  three 
hundred.  Although  the  action  terminated  in  the  retreat  of 
the  Confederates,  yet  they  had  given  an  exhibition  of  spirit 
among  the  proudest  in  the  war.  Our  little  army  had  wrestled 
in  deadly  conflict  with  an  enemy  five  times  its  strength  for 
seven  long  hours ;  and  when  they  did  retreat,  succeeded  in 
bringing  off  all  of  our  quartermaster  and  commissary  stores,  ' 
together  with  our  trains  and  artillery,  leaving  to  the  enemy  no 
trophies  over  which  to  exult,  save  the  bodies  of  our  gallant 
dead. 


170  THE  THIKD  TEAK  OF  THE  WAR. 

So  far  as  the  beneficial  results  of  the  expedition  to  the 
enemy  could  be  estimated  they  amounted  to  nothing.  They 
came  with  two  large  forces,  amounting,  in  the  aggregate,  to 
nearly  ten  thousand  men,  with  the  expectation  of  capturing 
the  command  of  Colonel  Jackson  and  General  Echols'  brigade, 
and  of  moving  then  upon  our  interior  lines  of  railroad.  By 
fighting,  however,  so  far  from  the  interior,  and  by  being  so 
checked  and  damaged  and  baffled  as  they  were,  they  failed  in 
the  one  object  and  abandoned  the  other. 

But  the  great  raid  of  Averill  seems  to  have  been  reserved 
for  December.  Pie  came  from  ISTew  Creek,  a  depot  on  the 
Baltimore  and  Ohio  railroad,  in  the  county  of  Hardy,  along 
the  western  base  of  the  Shenandoah  mountains,  through 
Covington  to  Salem,  burning  and  destroying  what  he  could  in 
his  path.  His  command  consisted  of  four  regiments  of  mounted 
infantry,  a  battalion  of  cavalry,  and  a  battery.  On  the  16th 
of  December  he  cut  the  Virginia  and  Tennessee  railroad  at 
Salem.  Here  three  depots  were  destroyed,  the  contents  of 
which  were  officially  stated  by  Averill  to  have  been  2,00*0 
barrels  of  flour,  10,000  bushels  of  wheat,  100,000  bushels  of 
shelled  corn,  50,000  bushels  of  oats,  2,000  barrels  of  meat, 
several  cords  of  leather,  and  1,000  sacks  of  salt. 

On  his  retreat,  the  adventurous  Yankee  had  to  run  the 
gauntlet  of  different  Confederate  commands,  arranged  in  a 
line  extending  from  Staunton  to  Newport  upon  all  the  avail 
able  roads  to  prevent  his  return.  Having  captured  a  despatch 
from  General  Jones  to  General  Early,  Averill  deflected  from 
the  line  of  his  retreat  and  instead  of  passing  through  Buchanan, 
moved  towards  Covington. 

Colonel  William  L.  Jackson  moved  his  command  down  to 
Jackson's  river  depot,  and  directed  the  bridge  to  be  burned  as 
soon  as  it  was  ascertained  that  the  enemy  were  advancing  to 
wards  it.  Jackson  then  took  a  strong  position  near  the  Jackson's 
river  depot,  at  the  point  where  the  Rich  Patch  road  connects 
the  Covington  turnpike.  He  then  directed  his  mounted  men, 
under  Captain  Sprague,  to  move  on  the  Rich  Patch  road  until 
they  met  the  enemy's  advance,  and  to  attack  them  desperately, 
and  cut  the  column  in  two,  if  possible.  At  four  o'clock  on 
Saturday  evening,  the  19th  December,  a  courier  from  Captain 
Sprague  announced  the  approach  of  the  enemy  by  that  road, 


THE  THIRD  YEAR  OF  THE  WAR.  171 

and  that  he  had  commenced  a  skirmish  with  AverilPs  advanced 
forces.  Jackson  immediately  ordered  an  advance  of  the  Twen 
tieth  Virginia  Regiment  by  a  blind  road,  so  as  to  attack  the 
enemy  obliquely.  He  also  ordered  the  Nineteenth  Yirginia 
Regiment  to  advance  on  the  Covington  turnpike  road,  and  to 
attack  the  enemy  directly.  At  that  point  Jackson  conceived 
the  idea  of  taking  a  detachment  of  about  fifty  men,  and  move 
forward  with  them  for  the  purpose  of  striking  the  enemy  vigo 
rously,  and  cutting  his  column  in  two.  In  this  he  succeeded 
perfectly.  One  half  of  the  Yankees  were  thus  separated  from 
the  other  half,  which  was  under  the  immediate  command  of 
Averill,  and  who  rapidly  passed  forward  towards  the  Island 
Ford  bridge.  Persons  entrusted  with  the  burning  of  the  Island 
Ford  bridge  failed  to  do  so,  however,  owing  to  the  rapid  ad 
vance  of  the  enemy  upon  that  point.  The  advance,  under 
Averill  in  person,  thus  managed  to  make  their  escape  across 
the  bridge. 

There  remained  in  Jackson's  hand  about  two  hundred  pri 
soners.  Averill  continued  his  retreat  to  Pocahontas  county. 
On  the  22d  December  he  wrote  to  the  War  Department  at 
Washington  :  "  My  command  has  marched,  climbed,  slid  and 
swam  three  hundred  and  fifty  miles  since  the  8th  instant." 


THE   NORTH    CAROLINA    SWAMPS. 

We  have  referred  in  this  chapter  to  the  occult  romances  of 
warfare  in  the  Trans-Mississippi.  But  there  was  a  district 
much  nearer  the  capital  of  the  Confederacy,  to  which  all  eyes 
were  turned  to  witness  certain  thrilling  scenes,  a  drama  of 
cruelty  such  as  the  world  had  seldom  seen,  even  in  the  wars 
and  outrages  of  barbarians. 

We  refer  to  the  north-eastern  parts  of  North  Carolina.  In 
Camden  and  Currituck  counties,  and  in  the  country  lying 
generally  between  Franklin  on  the  Blackwater  and  the  Roan- 
oke  river,  a  series  of  atrocities  was  committed  by  the  enemy  at 
which  the  blood  runs  cold.  It  is  difficult  to  find  words  of  de 
scription  for  the  pictures  of  the  wild  and  terrible  consequences 
of  the  negro  raids  in  this  obscure  theatre  of  the  war.  The 
country  was  traversed  by  negro  banditti ;  they  burned  houses ; 
they  entered  the  parlors  of  their  masters  ;  they  compelled  ladies 


172  THE  THIRD  TEAK  OF  THE  WAR. 

to  entertain  them  on  the  piano,  cursed  and  abused  them, 
stripped  them  of  their  jewelry  and  clothing,  and  offered  them 
indignities  which  it  would  offend  delicacy  to  describe. 

The  fiat  seemed  to  have  gone  forth  for  stern  and  terrible 
work  on  the  North  Carolina  frontier,  in  this  dark  and  melan 
choly  country  of  swamps,  overrun  with  negro  banditti,  and 
now  the  especial  theatre  of  the  war's  vengeance.  The  country 
was  a  rich  one,  comparing  favorably  with  the  Mississippi  bot 
toms,  and  one  of  the  most  important  sources  of  meat  supplies 
which  was  at  this  time  accessible  to  our  armies.  To  protect 
this  country  as  far  as  possible,  forces  were  raised,  under  autho 
rity  of  the  Government  of  North  Carolina,  for  local  defence 
and  to  repel  invasion  ;  they  were  duly  organized,  and  their 
officers  were  commissioned  by  the  governor,  and  for  a  year  or 
more  had  been  in  the  regular  service  of  the  State.  The 
Yankees  found  it  convenient  to  designate  these  forces  as 
"guerillas,"  in  order  to  justify  the  fiendish  warfare  of  negro 
partisans  and  white  banditti,  who  were  invited  to  prey  upon 
the  population. 

In  December,  a  force  of  negroes,  under  the  command  of 
Brigadier-general  Wild,  who  emulated  the  brutal  disposition 
and  ferocious  cowardice  of  his  master,  "  Beast "  Butler,  invaded 
the  north-eastern  parts  of  North  Carolina.  In  the  county  of 
Pasquotank,  forty  miles  from  Norfolk,  he  hung  Daniel  Bright 
at  his  owif  house.  He  seized  more  than  one  hundred  thousand 
dollars'  worth  of  personal  property  in  the  adjoining  counties; 
stripped  the  farmers  of  every  living  thing,  and  brought  it  all 
away,  leaving  hundreds  of  inhabitants  without  a  pound  of  meat 
or  a  peck  of  meal. 

Daniel  Bright  was  a  member  of  the  Sixty-second  Georgia 
regiment,  under  command  of  Colonel  J.  R.  Griffin,  and  had 
received  authority  from  the  Governor  of  North  Carolina  to 
raise  a  company  in  the  county  for  local  defence.  Failing  in 
the  effort,  he  had  retired  to  his  farm,  and  was  there  seized,  car 
ried  off  and  executed.  He  was  hung  on  the  side  of  the  public 
road,  and  a  placard  fastened  upon  his  back. 

But  the  most  brutal  of  all  the  outrages  of  Wild  was  the  seiz 
ure,  as  "  hostages  "  for  two  of  his  negroes  who  had  been  cap 
tured,  of  two  most  respectable  married  ladies,  Mrs.  Phosbe 
Munden,  wife  of  Lieutenant  W.  J.  Munden,  and  Mrs.  Elizabeth 


THE  THIRD  TEAK  OF  THE  WAR. 


173 


"Weeks,  wife  of  Private  Fender  Weeks,  of  Captain  John  T. 
Elliot's  company.  The  first  was  arrested  at  her  own  house,  in 
the  presence  only  of  her  three  children,  of  whom  the  oldest  was 
ten  years  of  age,  conveyed  a  few  miles  to  Elizabeth  City,  con 
fined  in  a  room  without  fire,  bed  or  bedding,  with  several  male 
prisoners,  and  tied  by  the  feet  and  hands.  A  negro  guard  was 
placed  in  charge  of  the  prisoners.  The  succeeding  day,  the 
other  lady,  Mrs.  Weeks,  was  placed  in  the  same  room.  They 
were  constantly  guarded,  and  neither  was  allowed  to  leave  the 
room  for  the  most  necessary  duty,  but  in  company  with  an 
armed  negro  soldier.  Mrs.  Munden  was  in  delicate  health,  and 
forced  from  a  home  immediately  laid  in  ashes,  with  all  it  con 
tained,  without  other  apparel  than  she  wore  upon  her  person, 
and  passed  several  nights  in  the  cheerless  and  cold  apartment 
to  which  she  was  confined  at  that  inclement  season,  before  the 
humanity  of  her  captors  was  so  far  softened  as  to  permit 
blankets  to  be  furnished  for  her  use.  They  were  kept  some 
days  and  then  removed  to  Norfolk.  When  Mrs.  Munden  was 
carried  off,  her  wrists  were  bleeding  with  the  stricture  of  the 
cord  with  which  she  was  bound,  and  it  is  said  that  a  negro  was 
allowed  by  Wild  to  hold  the  cord  that  bound  her,  and  thus 
drive  her  into  Norfolk. 

Such  were  the  scenes  which  illustrated  the  Yankee  idea  of 
prosecuting  the  war  with  "  vigor,"  and  gratified  the  vile  and 
cowardly  revenge  of  those  who,  in  luxurious  cities  and  com 
fortable  homes,  clamored  for  the  blood  of  "  rebels,"  and  even 
claimed  women  and  children  as  their  victims. 

X 


/ LIBRARY 

UNIVERSITY  OP 

CALIFORNIA. 

-^==-^* 


174  THE  THIRD  YEAR  OF  THE  WAR. 


CHAPTER  YIII. 

The  President's  Declaration  to  the  Confederate  Congress  of  1863-64.— "Want  of 
Capacity"  in  the  Confederate  Authorities. — Character  of  Jefferson  Davis. — Official 
Shiftlessness  at  Richmond. --Early  Prognostications  of  the  War. — The  "  Statesman 
ship"  of  the  Confederates. — Ludicrous  Errors  of  Confederate  Leaders. — What  "  King 
Cotton"  might  have  done. — Gross  Mismanagement  of  the  Confederate  Finances. — Mr. 
Memminger's  Maladministration. — The  Moral  Evils  of  an  Expanded  Currency. — The 
Military  Situation  in  December. — Secretary  Seddon's  Shameful  Confession.— "  De- 
magogueism"  in  the  Confederate  War  Department. — Seddon's  Propositions. — Military 
"  Substitutes." — An  Act  of  Perfidy. — Bullying  in  Congress. — Spirit  of  the  Confederate 
Soldiery. — LINCOLN'S  "  PEACE  PROCLAMATION." — Its  Stupidity,  Insolence,  and  Out 
rage. — How  the  Confederates  Replied  to  it. — A  New  Appeal  Against  "  Recon 
struction." — THE  SLAVERY  QUESTION  IN  THE-  WAR. — A  French  Opinion. — The 
Abolitionists  Unmasked. — Decay  of  European  Sympathy  with  Them. — Review  of 
Lincoln's  "Emancipation"  Policy.— The  Arming  of  the  Blacks. — The  Negro  Coloni 
zation  Schemes. — Experiments  of  New  England  "Civilization"  in  Louisiana. — 
Frightful  Mortality  of  "  Freedmen." — The  Appalling  Statistics  of  Emancipation. — 
The  Contraband  Camps  in  the  Mississippi  Valley. — Pictures  of  Yankee  Philanthropy. 
—"Slavery"  Tested  by  the  Wur.—  The  Confederates  the  True  Friends  of  the  African 
Laborer. — The  System  of  Negro  Servitude  in  the  Confederacy. — The  "  War-to-the- 
Knife"  Party  in  the  North. — HISTORY  OF  THE  "  RETALIATION"  POLICY. — The  Outrages 
of  Yankee  Warfare. — President  Davis's  Sentimentalism. — The  Record  of  his  Unpar 
donable  and  Unparalleled  Weakness. — A  Peep  into  Yankee  Prisons. — The  Torture- 
Houses  of  the  North.— Captain  Morgan's  Experience  Among  "the  Convict-Drivers." 
— President  Davis's  Bluster.— His  Two  Faces. — Moral  Effects  of  Submission  to  Yankee 
Outrage. — The  Rival  Administrations  in  December  18C3. — Richmond  and  Washing 
ton. — Mr.  Lincoln's  Gaiety. — New  Issues  for  the  Confederacy. 

At  the  meeting  of  the  Confederate  Congress,  in  December, 
1863,  President  Davis  said:  "We  now  know  that  the  only 
reliable  hope  for  peace  is  in  the  vigor  of  our  resistance,  while 
the  cessation  of  their  [the  enemy's]  hostility  is  only  to  be  ex 
pected  from  the  pressure  of  their  necessities."  The  Confederate 
Administration  had  at  last  arrived  at  the  correct  comprehension 
of  the  wrar.  But  it  had  reached  this  conclusion  only  after  a 
period  of  nearly  three  years  of  ignorance,  short-sighted  conceit 
and  perversity. 

The  careful  and  candid  reader  of  the  pages  of  two  volumes 
of  the  history  of  the  war,  by  this  writer,  will  bear  him  witness 
that  at  no  time  has  he  reflected  upon  the  patriotism  or  the 
public  integrity  of  President  Davis.  The  accusation,  which 


THE  THIRD  YEAR  OF  THE  WAR.  175 

has  run  through  these  volumes,  is  simply  this :  want  of  capacity 
in  the  administration  of  public  affairs. 

It  is  not  possible  that  any  historian  of  this  war  can  overlook 
certain  admirable  qualities  of  the  President  of  the  Confederacy  : 
his  literary  abilities,  his  spruce  English,  his  ascetic  morals,  the 
purity  of  his  private  life,  and  the  extraordinary  facility  of  his 
manners.  But  he  was  not  a  statesman  ;  he  had  no  administra 
tive  capacities;  he  lacked  that  indispensable  and  practical 
element  of  success  in  all  political  administrations — knowledge 
of  the  true  value  of  men  ;  and  he  was — probably,  unconscious 
ly  through  his  vanity — accessible  to  favorites.  In  the  old  gov 
ernment,  Mr.  Davis  had  never  been  accounted  as  a  statesman, 
but  was  quite  as  obtuse  as  most  of  the  public  men  of  that  day. 
He  it  was,  of  Southern  politicians,  who  declared  in  a  public 
letter,  in  1858,  that  the  "Kansas  Conference  bill"  was  "the 
triumph  of  all  for  which  we  contended."  He  had  failed  to  see 
the  origin  and  occasion  of  the  revolution  which  he  assumed  to 
conduct. 

His  choice  of  favorites  in  the  field  had  been  as  unapt  as  his 
selection  of  political  advisers  in  the  Cabinet.  This  President, 
who  depreciated  Price  as  a  militiaman,  and  held  (or  probably 
affected)  a  light  opinion  of  Beauregard,  was  convinced  that 
Pemberton  was  a  genius  who  should  be  raised  by  a  single 
stroke  of  patronage  from  the  obscurity  of  a  major  to  the  posi 
tion  of  a  Lieutenant-general;  recognized  Heth  as  a  young 
Napoleon ;  selected  Lovell  as  the  natural  guardian  of  the 
Mississippi ;  declared  that  Holmes,  who  had  let  the  enemy 
slip  out  of  his  fingers  at  Richmond,  was  the  appointed  deliverer 
of  Missouri  and  Arkansas,  and  competent  to  take  charge  of  the 
destinies  of  an  empire ;  and  prophesied  with  peculiar  emphasis 
of  mystery,  but  a  few  weeks  before  the  session  of  Congress,  in 
a  public  speech  in  a  Southern  city,  that  Bragg  by  that  time 
would  be  in  the  heart  of  Tennessee,  and  on  the  pinnacles  of 
victory ! 

The  civil  administration  of  Mr.  Davis  had  fallen  to  a  low 
ebb.  There  are  certain  minds  which  cannot  see  how  want  of 
capacity  in  our  government,  official  shiftlessne&s  and  the  mis 
management  of  public  affairs  yet  consist  with  the  undeniable 
facts  of  the  successes  of  our  arms  and  the  great  achievements 
of  the  Confederacy.  But  it  is  possible  that  these  two  conditions 


1T6  THE  THIKD  TEAK  OF  THE  WAR. 

may  consist— that,  in  a  revolution,  the  valor  and  determination 
of  a  people  may  make  considerable  amends  for  the  faults  of  its 
governors.  If  the  history  of  this  war  has  proved  one  proposi 
tion  clearly  it  is  this:  that  in  all  its  subjects  of  congratulation, 
the  "  statesmanship"  of  Richmond  has  little  part  or  lot.  Let 
those  who  deny  the  justice  of  this  historical  judgment,  which 
refuses  to  attribute  to  the  official  authorities  of  this  government 
such  success  as  we  have  had  in  this  war,  say  what  they  have 
contributed  to  it. 

The  evidences  of  the  "  statesmanship"  of  Richmond  were  not 
to  be  found  in  our  foreign  relations :  these  were  absurdities. 
They  were  not  to  be  found  in  our  provisions  for  the  war :  these 
were  make-shifts  from  month  to  month.  They  were  not  to  be 
found  in  our  financial  calculations  :  these  had  proved  the  most 
ridiculous  failures  in  the  monetary  annals  of  the  world.  We 
owe  this  melancholy  confession  to  history,  that  we  do  not 
know  of  any  real  and  substantial  particulars  in  which  the 
administration  of  Mr.  Davis  has  contributed  to  this  war.  The 
reverse  of  the  proposition  need  not  be  repeated  here. 

It  is  mortifying,  indeed,  to  look  back  upon  the  currents  of 
our  history,  to  observe  the  blindness  and  littleness  of  mind, 
the  conceit,  the  perversity,  the  short-sighted  management  on 
all  which  we  have  drifted  into  this  present  vastness  of  war  and 
depths  of  distress.  In  Montgomery,  at  the  period  of  the  pro 
visional  inauguration  of  the  Confederacy,  any  one  who  had  the 
hardihood  to  insist  upon  the  probability  of  a  war,  became  a 
butt  of  raillery  or  the  object  of  suspicion.  The  war  once  be 
gun,  the  next  idea  in  the  minds  of  the  Confederate  leaders  was, 
that  it  was  to  be  despatched  in  a  few  months  by  mere  make 
shifts  of  armies  and  money,  and  with  the  scant  supply  of 
munitions  already  on  hand.  Months  intervened  between  Lin 
coln's  declaration  of  war  and  the  actual  establishment  of  the 
blockade.  But  no  use  was  made  of  this  golden  opportunity, 
and  our  importations  of  army  supplies  from  Europe  during  all 
these  months,  actually  may  be  counted  in  a  few  thousand  stand 
of  small  arms.  Secretary  Mallory  laughed  off  contractors  in 
New  Orleans,  who  offered  to  sell  to  the  government  a  large 
amount  of  navy  supplies.  Judah  P.  Benjamin,  at  the  head  of 
the  War  Department,  wrote  to  a  friend  in  the  first  winter  of 
the  war,  that  within  sixty  days  the  country  would  be  at  peace. 


THE  THIRD  YEAR  OF  THE  WAE.  177 

Later  still,  in  the  winter  of  1862,  President  Davis,  in  a  speech 
before  the  Legislature  of  Mississippi,  had  pronounced  the 
solemn  opinion  that  the  war  would  soon  come  to  an  end.  Yet 
we  find  the  same  eminent  personage  now  declaring  to  the 
Congress  of  1863,  his  belief  in  an  indefinite  prolongation  of 
the  war,  and  his  despair  of  his  many  brilliant  former  prospects 
of  peace,  through  instrumentalities  other  than  that  of  our  arms. 

Able  and  candid  journals  of  the  North,  have  repeatedly  con 
fessed  that  they  were  puzzled  by  the  extraordinary  want  of 
foresight  and  judgment  displayed  by  the  Confederate  leaders, 
in  their  calculation  at  different  periods  of  the  war  of  the  course 
likely  to  be  pursued  by  Europe  and  the  North.  These  errors 
might  have  been  expected  from  men  of  little  education,  to 
whom  self-interest  in  its  lowest  sense  was  the  key  to  all  politi 
cal  problems,  but  by  no  means  from  persons  who  had  studied 
politics  in  books.  "  The  notion,"  said  the  New  York  Times , 
"  that  the  North,  being  a  commercial  community,  devoted  to 
the  pursuit  of  gain,  was,  for  that  reason,  sure  not  to  fight,  was 
rather  the  conclusion  of  a  backwoodsman  than  of  a  student. 
The  lesson  of  history  is  that  commercial  communities  are 
among  the  most  pugnacious  and  ambitious  and  most  obstinate 
of  belligerents  :  witness  Carthage,  Yenice,  Genoa,  Holland,  and 
England." 

The  utter  failure  of  the  calculations  of  the  Confederate  Ad 
ministration,  regarding  France  and  England,  had  exhibited  a 
hasty  and  passionate  reasoning,  of  which  Mr.  Davis  and  his 
associates  might  well  be  ashamed.  The  idea  is  ludicrous  now 
that  at  the  very  beginning  of  the  American  revolution,  France 
and  England,  with  their  centuries  of  vast  and  varied  experi 
ence,  in  peace  and  war,  would  fling  themselves  into  a  convul 
sion  which  their  great  politicians  easily  saw  was  the  most 
tremendous  one  of  modern  times.  Yet  this  idea  was  enter 
tained  by  President  Davis  ;  and  as  proof  of  it,  the  Confederate 
commissioners  were  instructed  to  apply  to  Earl  Russell  for 
recognition  in  England  after  the  first  battle  of  Manassas ! 

At  the  commencement  of  the  war,  cotton  was  pronounced 
"  King ;"  and  the  absurd  and  puerile  idea  was  put  forward  by 
the  politicians  of  the  Davis  school,  that  the  great  and  illustri 
ous  power  of  England  would  submit  to  the  ineffable  humilia 
tion  of  acknowledging  its  dependency  on  the  infant  Confed- 

12 


178  THE  THIRD  TEAK  OF  THE  WAK. 

eracy  of  the  South,  and  the  subserviency  of  its  empire,  its 
political  interests,  and  its  pride,  to  a  single  article  of  trade  that 
was  grown  in  America!  And  what  indeed  is  the  sum  of 
advantages  which  the  Confederacy  drew  froih  the  royal  re 
sources  of  cotton  ?  It  is  true  that  these  resources  could  not 
compel  the  political  interests  and  pride  of  England.  But, 
properly  used,  they  might  have  accomplished  much  for  the 
interests  of  the  Confederacy.  In  point  of  fact  they  accom 
plished  nothing.  For  one  year  after  the  war  commenced,  the 
blockade  was  so  slight  that  the  whole  of  the  cotton  might  have 
been  shipped  to  Europe,  and  there  sold  at  two  shillings  ster 
ling  a  pound,  giving  the  government,  purchasing  at  twenty 
cents,  a  clear  profit  of  six  hundred  millions  of  dollars  !  We 
may  even  suppose  one-fifth  of  this  captured  by  the  enemy,  and 
we  would  still  have  had  a  balance  in  our  favor,  which  would 
have  enabled  us  to  have  drained  every  bank  in  Europe  of  its 
specie !  Or  if  we  had  drawn  for  this  sum  as  we  needed  it,  our 
treasury  notes  would  have  been  equal  to  gold,  and  confidence 
in  our  currency  would  have  been  unshaken  and  universal. 

The  Confederacy  had  thus  the  element  at  ready  hand  for  the 
structure  of  one  of  the  most  successful  schemes  of  finance  in 
the  world.  But  the  government  was  too  grossly  ignorant  to 
see  it.  The  purchase  of  the  cotton  to  the  government  was 
decried  by  Mr.  Memminger,  as  a  scheme  of  "  soup-house  legis 
lation  ;"  and  the  new  government  was  started  without  a  basis 
of  credit ;  without  a  system  of  revenue ;  on  the  monstrous  de 
lusion  that  money  might  be  manufactured  at  will  out  of  paper, 
and  that  a  naked  "  promise  to  pay,"  was  all  sufficient  for  the 
wants  of  the  war! 

It  is  to  be  frankly  admitted  that  the  South  commenced  the 
war  with  financial  advantages  which  the  North  did  not  have — 
that  is,  without  reference  to  commercial  incidents  of  the  block 
ade,  but  with  respect  to  the  sustention  of  its  credit  at  home. 
The  South  had  the  cotton  and  the  tobacco.  It  had  the  un 
bounded  sympathies  of  its  people.  It  had  larger  taxable  values 
per  capita  than  any  other  country  in  the  world.  It  is  not  pos 
sible  that  with  these  advantages  it  could  have  wrecked  its 
credit  with  its  own  people,  unless  through  a  great  want  of 
capacity  in  the  administration  of  the  government.  It  is  not 
possible,  that,  with  these  advantages,  its  currency  should  have 


THE  THIRD  YEAR  OF  THE  WAR.  179 

declined  with  its  own  people  ten  times  faster  than  that  of  the 
North  with  its  people,  unless  through  a  gross  mismanagement 
of  public  affairs.  These  are  logical  conclusions  which  are  not 
to  be  disputed. 

At  the  organization  of  the  permanent  government  of  the 
Confederacy,  in  February,  1862,  President  Davis  had  made 
the  most  extravagant  congratulations  to  the  country,  on  our 
financial  condition  in  comparison  with  that  of  the  IJ^orth.  In 
less  than  eighteen  months  thereafter,  when  gold  was  quoted  in 
New  York  at  twenty-five  per  cent,  premium,  it  was  selling  in 
Richmond  at  nine  hundred  per  cent,  premium ;  and  by  the 
time  that  the  Confederate  Congress  met,  in  December,  1863, 
gold  in  Richmond  was  worth  about  two  thousand  per  cent, 
premium,  and  was  publicly  sold,  one  for  twenty  in  Confeder 
ate  notes !  Such  had  been  the  results  of  the  financial  wisdom 
of  the  Confederacy.  It  had  been  dictated  by  the  President, 
who  advised  Congress  (as  late  as  August,  1862)  to  authorize 
illimitable  issues  of  treasury  notes,  without  fear  of  their  depre 
ciation,  and  aggravated,  no  doubt,  by  the  ignorance  of  his 
secretary,  who  invented  the  legerdemain  of  "funding,"  that 
had  given  the  last  stab  to  the  currency,  and  who  opened  the 
doors  of  the  treasury  to  brokers,  blockade-runners,  and  the 
vast  tribes  of  those  who  lived  on  the  depreciation  of  the  public 
credit* 


*  The  experiments  of  Mr.  Memminger  on  the  currency  was  the  signal  of 
multiplied  and  rapid  depreciation.  While  the  eccentric  and  pious  Secretary 
was  figuring  out  impossible  schemes  of  making  money,  or  ransacking  the  book 
stores  for  works  on  religious  controversy,  unprincipled  brokers  in  the  Confed 
eracy  were  undermining  the  currency  with  a  zeal  for  the  destruction  of  their 
country  not  less  than  that  of  the  Yankees.  The  assertion  admits  of  some  quali 
fication.  Sweeping  remarks  in  history  are  generally  unjust.  Among  those 
engaged  in  the  business  of  banking  and  exchange  in  the  South,  there  were 
undoubtedly  some  enlightened  and  public-spirited  men  who  had  been  seduced 
by  the  example  or  constrained  by  the  competition  of  meaner  and  more  avari 
cious  men  of  the  same  profession,  to  array  themselves  against  the  currency, 
and  to  commit  offences  from  which  they  would  have  shrunk  in  horror,  had 
they  not  been  disguised  by  the  casuistry  of  commerce  and  gain. 

It  was  generally  thought  in  the  South  reprehensible  to  refuse  the  national 
currency  in  the  payment  of  debts.  Yet  the  broker,  who  demanded  eighteen 
or  twenty  dollars  in  this  currency  for  one  in  gold,  really  was  guilty  of  so  many 
times  refusing  the  Confederate  money.  It  was  accounted  shocking  for  citizens 
in  the  South  to  speculate  in  soldiers'  clothing  and  bread.  Yet  the  broker,  who 


180  THE  THIRD  YEAR  OF  THE  WAR. 

Of  all  the  features  of  maladministration  in  the  Confederacy, 
.  which  we  have  unwillingly  traced,  that  of  the  currency  was, 
certainly,  the  most  marked,  and,  perhaps,  the  most  vital. 
Nothing  could  be  more  absurd  than  the  faith  of  Mr.  Davis 
and  Mr.  Memminger  in  the  virtues  of  paper  money,  and  no 
empiricism  more  ignorant  and  destructive  than  that  which 
made  the  mere  emission  o£  paper  issues  a  system  of  revenue. 
In  the  old  government,  we  had  had  many  emphatic  lessons  on 
the  subject  of  paper  money.  Indeed,  it  is  a  curious  and  inter 
esting  fact,  that  in  sixty  years  of  our  past  history,  the  banking 

demanded  twenty  prices  for  gold,  the  representative  of  all  values,  speculated 
alike  in  every  necessary  in  the  country.  Nor  was  this  the  greatest  of  their 
offences.  With  unsurpassed  shamelessness,  brokers  in  the  Confederacy  ex 
posed  the  currency  of  the  North  for  sale,  and  demanded  for  it  ten  hundred  per 
cent,  premium  over  that  of  the  Confederacy  !  This  act  of  benefit  to  the  Yan 
kees  was  openly  allowed  by  the  government.  A  bill  had  been  introduced  in 
Congress  to  prohibit  this  traffic  and  to  extirpate  this  infamous  anomaly  in  our 
history  ;  but  it  failed  of  enactment,  and  its  failure  can  only  be  attributed  to  the 
grossest  stupidity,  or  to  sinister  influences  of  the  most  dishonorable  kind.  The 
traffic  was  immensely  profitable.  State  bonds  and  bank  bills  to  the  amount  of 
many  millions  were  sent  North  by  the  brokers,  and  the  rates  of  discount  were 
readily  submitted  to  when  the  returns  were  made  in  Yankee  paper  money, 
which,  in  Richmond  shops,  was  worth  in  Confederate  notes  ten  dollars  for  one. 
One — but  only  one — cause  of  the  depreciation  of  the  Confederate  currency 
was  illicit  trade.  It  had  done  more  to  demoralize  the  Confederacy  than  any 
thing  else.  The  inception  of  this  trade  was  easily  winked  at  by  the  Confed 
erate  authorities ;  it  commenced  with  paltry  importations  across  the  Potomac  ; 
it  was  said  the  country  wanted  medicines,  surgical  instruments,  and  a  number 
of  trifles,  and  that  trade  with  the  Yankees  in  these  could  result  in  no  serious 
harm.  But  by  the  enlarged  license  of  the  government  it  soon  became  an  infa 
my  and  a  curse  to  the  Confederacy.  What  was  a  petty  traffic  in  its  commence 
ment  soon  expanded  into  a  shameless  trade,  which  corrupted  the  patriotism  of 
the  country,  constituted  an  anomaly  in  the  history  of  belligerents,  and  reflected 
lasting  disgrace  upon  the  honesty  and  good  sense  of  our  government.  The 
country  had  taken  a  solemn  resolution  to  burn  the  cotton  in  advance  of  the 
enemy ;  but  the  conflagration  of  this  staple  soon  came  to  be  a  rare  event ; 
instead  of  being  committed  to  the  flames  it  was  spirited  to  Yankee  markets. 
Nor  were  these  operations  always  disguised.  Some  commercial  houses  in  the 
Confederacy  counted  their  gains  by  millions  of  dollars  since  the  war,  through 
the  favor  of  the  government  in  allowing  them  to  export  cotton  at  pleasure. 
The  beneficiaries  of  this  trade  contributed  freely  to  public  charities,  and  did 
certain  favors  to  the  government ;  but  their  gifts  were  but  the  parings  of  im 
mense  gains  ;  and  often  those  who  were  named  by  weak  and  credulous  people 
or  by  interested  flatterers  as  public-spirited  citizens  and  patriotic  donors,  were, 
in  fact,  the  most  unmitigated  extortioners  and  the  vilest  leeches  on  the  body 
politic.—"  The  Second  Tear  of  the  War,"— pp.  304,  305. 


THE  THIRD  YEAR  OF  THE  WAR.  181 

institutions  of  America  had  been,  more  or  less,  in  a  state  of 
suspension  for  one-third  of  the  time. 

But  despite  the  protest  of  historical  facts,  against  all  sys 
tems  of  paper  expansion,  Mr.  Memminger  had  succeeded  by 
the  time  of  the  meeting  of  Congress,  in  putting  afloat  some 
seven  hundred  millions  of  currency  ;  although  at  another  time, 
he  himself  had  declared  that  the  business  of  the  country  could 
not  conveniently  absorb  more  than  one  hundred  and  fifty  mil 
lions.*  And  even  that  estimate  of  absorption  was  ridiculously 
excessive.  It  was  so  for  this  particular  reason :  that  in  the 
state  of  war,  with  its  commerce  cut  off  by  the  blockade,  with 
no  merchant  ships,  with  few  manufactures,  with  few  enter 
prises  open  to  capital,  the  South  afforded  but  little  scope  for 
the  profitable  employment  of  its  currency.  The  difficulty  was 
that  of  stagnant  capital,  as  well  as  that  of  an  expanded  cur 
rency. 

At  least  one  reason  for  the  comparative  financial  prosperity 
of  the  Korth,  during  the  war,  was  its  capacity  of  absorbing 
large  amounts  of  currency  in  the  various  functions  of  its  active 
commercial  life  :  in  its  trade  open  with  all  the  world  ;  in  its 
shipping  whitening  every  sea ;  in  its  immense  internal  trade, 
borne  over  immense  lines  of  railroad  and  navigable  waters  ;  in 
its  manufactures,  enjoying  the  monopoly  given  them  by  a  tariff, 
which  shut  out  foreign  competition  ;  in  its  stocks,  which  made 
fortunes  by  the  million  in  Wall  street.f 


*  Before  the  war  the  paper  money  of  the  whole  country,  North  and  South, 
was  two  hundred  and  twelve  millions  ;  the  gold  and  silver,  say  one  hundred 
and  fifty  millions — total  circulation,  three  hundred  and  sixty-two  millions. 

f  The  hey-day  of  "  Wall  street"  is  thus  described  in  a  New  York  paper 
(August,  1863) :  "  Stocks  have  advanced  on  an  average  fully  three  hnndred  per 
cent.  For  example,  the  Erie  formerly  sold  for  five  ;  it  is  now  one  hundred  and 
twenty.  The  Galena  and  other  roads  of  the  same  kind,  which  were  down  to 
thirty  and  forty,  are  now  up  to  one  hundred  and  thirty  and  one  hundred  and 
forty.  The  Harlem  railroad,  that  nobody  would  take  at  six,  has  risen  to  one 
hundred  and  seventy.  Formerly  the  average  receipts  of  the  Erie  railroad  were 
five  millions  ;  now  they  are  eleven  millions.  The  receipts  of  the  New  York 
Central  formerly  averaged  seven  millions  ;  now  they  average  eleven  and  a  half 
millions.  Formerly  the  Hudson  River  never  could  pay  its  debts  ;  this  year  it  is 
making  thirty  per  cent.  The  Fort  Wayne  road  formerly  received  two  and  a 
half  millions  annually  ;  its  receipts  this  year  are  five  millions.  The  Central 
Illinois  increased  its  receipts  last  week,  by  fifty  thousand  dollars,  and  it  will 
earn  this  month  four  hundred  thousand  dollars." 


182  THE  THIRD  YEAR  OF  THE  WAE. 

But  the  agricultural  South  was  inundated  with  a  currency 
for  which  there  was  no  outlet  except  in  that  pernicious  and  un 
productive  speculation  whose  sphere  of  trade  is  within  itself, 
and  whose  operations  can  be  only  those  of  engrossing  and  ex 
tortion.  The  evils  of  the  expanded  currency  of  the  Confede 
racy,  were  not  only  financial ;  they  were  also  moral.  The  su 
perabundance  of  paper  money  was  the  occasion  of  a  wild 
speculation,  which  corrupted  the  patriotism  of  the  country  ;  in 
troduced  extravagance  and  licentiousness  into  private  life ;  be 
stowed  fortune  upon  the  most  undeserving  ;  and  above  all,  bred 
the  most  grave  and  dangerous  discontents  in  the  army.  As 
long  as  there  was  a  spirit  of  mutual  sacrifice  and  mutual  ac 
commodation  in  the  war,  our  soldiers  were  content  and  cheer 
ful.  But  when  they  had  to  compare  their  condition — the  hard 
ships  of  the  camp  ;  the  pittance  of  eleven  dollars  a  month,  that 
could  scarcely  buy  a  pair  of  socks ;  the  poverty  of  the  dear 
home  left  behind  them — with  the  easy  and  riotous  wealth  of 
those  who  had  kept  out  of  the  army  merely  to  wring  money 
out  of  the  necessity  and  distress  of  the  country ;  who,  in  snug 
shops  in  Richmond,  made  thousands  of  dollars  a  day,  or,  by  a 
single  stroke  of  speculation,  became  rich  for  life  ;  it  is  not  to 
be  wondered,  that  bitter  conclusions  should  have  been  drawn 
from  the  contrast,  and  that  the  soldier  should  have  given  his 
bosom  to  the  bullets  with  less  alacrity  and  zeal,  when  he  re 
flected  that  his  martyrdom  was  to  protect  a  large  class  of  men 
grown  rich  on  his  necessities,  and  that  too,  with  the  compliance 
and  countenance  of  the  Government  he  defended ! 

At  the  period  of  the  assembling  of  Congress,  the  military 
situation  in  the  Confederacy,  which  in  the  early  part  of  1863 
had  encouraged,  not  without  apparent  reasons,  hopes  of  an  early 
and  honorable  peace,  had  become  overshadowed,  critical,  and, 
to  some  extent,  truly  alarming.  At  the  time  of  the  fall  of 
Yicksburg,  the  enemy  had  also  obtained  an  important  and  per 
manent  success  in  Arkansas.  The  greater  portion  of  the  South 
west  he  had  now  overrun.  Missouri,  Kentucky  and  North 
western  Virginia,  were  exclusively  occupied  by  the  forces  of 
the  enemy.  North  Carolina,  South  Carolina  and  Alabama, 
were  partially  invaded  by  him.  He  had  passed  the  barrier 
of  the  Cumberland  mountains,  established  his  dominion  in 
East  Tennessee,  and  from  bis  lines  in  the  central  West,  now 


THE  THIRD  YEAR  OF  THE  WAR.  183 

hoped  to  inundate  South  Carolina,  Georgia,  and  South  Al 
abama. 

In  the  face  of  this  critical  military  situation,  came  the  as 
tounding  disclosure  from  the  Confederate  Secretary  of  "War, 
Mr.  James  Seddon,  that  the  effective  force  of  the  army  was 
"not  more  than  a  half,  never  two-thirds  of  the  soldiers  in  the 
ranks." 

In  stating  this  deplorable  fact,  the  Secretary  avoided  attrib 
uting  it  to  its  paramount  causes — the  fault  of  his  own  ad 
ministration  ;  the  remissness  of  discipline  ;  the  weak  shunning 
of  the  death-penalty  in  our  armies,  and  that  paltry  quackery 
which  proposed  to  treat  the  great  evil  of  desertion  with 
"  proclamations"  and  patriotic  appeals.  He  did  what  was 
worse  than  this  insincerity ;  for  he  proposed  to  repair  that 
evil  of  absenteeism,  which  the  government  itself  had  occa 
sioned,  by  new  and  violent  measures  to  replenish  the  army. 
These  were  an  extension  of  the  conscription,  which  endangered 
the  exhaustion  of  the  military  reserves  of  the  country  ;  the  ex 
post  facto  annulment  of  all  contracts  for  substitution,  which 
was  to  the  scandal  of  the  moral  world,  and  to  the  lively  dis 
satisfaction  of  more  than  seventy  thousand  persons,  many  of 
whom  were  indispensable  in  civil  employments  and  by  their 
wealth  and  social  position,  commanded  an  influence  which  the 
government  could  not  afford  to  despise  ; — and,  to  crown  all, 
the  supersedure  of  all  exemptions  by  a  system  of  details  in  the 
War  Department,  which  would  have  transferred  the  question  of 
all  relief  with  respect  to  the  burdens  of  the  war,  from  the 
proper  constitutional  jurisdiction  and  collective  wisdom  of 
Congress,  to  the  exclusive  discretion,  caprice  or  malice  of  a 
single  official.* 

*  There  is  a  little  piece  of  official  history  which  may  be  properly  given  here. 

On  the  8th  of  January,  1864,  Mr.  Dargan,  of  Alabama,  referred  in  the  House 
of  Representatives  to  "  acts  of  merciless  cruelty"  on  the  part  of  the  authorities, 
with  reference  to  exemptions,  which  it  was  then  proposed,  by  a  certain  dema 
gogical  bill  in  the  House,  to  entrust  exclusively  and  omnipotently  to  the  Ex 
ecutive.  He  illustrated  the  epithets  applied  by  an  instance  where  a  man  had 
been  mercilessly  put  in  the  military  service,  who  had  never  walked  and  never 
been  able  to  walk  a  quarter  of  a  mile  in  any  one  day  in  his  life,  and  all  the  ef 
forts  made  by  Mr.  Dargan  with  the  Secretary  of  War  to  procure  his  release 
had  so  far  been  unavailing. 

Yet  it  appears,  from  a  certain  record,  that  the  same  official  who  had  been  so 


184:  THE   THIRD    YEAR   OF   THE   WAR. 

Such  measures  were  finished  pieces  of  demagoguism.  The 
various  propositions  made  to  Congress  for  further  military 
drafts,  at  the  expense  of  the  public  faith  and  the  gravest  in 
terests  of  the  citizen  and  producer,  were  calculated  to  find  favor, 
of  course,  in  the  army,  which,  as  designing  politicians  knew, 
contained  the  great  body  of  voters  in  the  country,  and  was 
destined  to  hold  the  balance  of  political  power  in  the  Con 
federacy. 

The  vice  of  our  public  men  was  an  inordinate  passion  for  an 
ephemeral  and  worthless  popularity.  The  entire  legislation  of 
the  country,  Confederate  -and  State,  was  demoralized  by  a  pe 
culiar  demagoguism.  All  the  legislative  bodies  of  the  coun 
try  were  filled  with  schemes  of  agrarianism  for  the  benefit 
of  the  soldier,  and  assaults  on  the  most  important  civil  rights 


exacting  to  the  cripple,  and  who  solicited  from  Congress  plenary  powers  on  the 
subject  of  exemptions,  had  given,  over  his  own  name,  a  special,  secret  exemp 
tion  to  a  man  who  professed  to  him  that  he  was  writing  a  history  of  the  war  ; 
in  which  it  was,  of  course,  expected  that  Mr.  James  Seddon  would  be  one  of  the 
figure-heads  in  the  gallery  of  celebrities. 

This  little  piece  of  nefarious  traffic  in  an  official's  vanity  is  of  record :  else  it 
might  be  doubted  whether,  even  in  our  Democratic  system,  a  man  occupying 
Mr.  Seddon's  position  could  be  so  easily  and  shamefully  used. 

We  copy  the  extraordinary  paper  below,  omitting  the  name  of  its  beneficiary, 
because  it  is  not  necessary  to  history,  and  because  we  are  anxious  to  spare  all 
private  feelings  which  are  not  materially  involved  in  a  public  issue  : 

CONFEDERATE  STATES  OF  AMERICA,} 

WAR  DEPARTMENT, 
RICHMOND,  October  20,  1863.        ) 

Mr. ,  not  being  a  native  or  naturalized  citizen  of  the  Confederacy,  AND 

MOREOVER,  being  engaged  in  compiling  a  work  of  interest  to  our  people,  and  ad 
vantageous  to  our  cause,  is  exempt  until  further  orders  from  conscription. 

JAMES  A.  SEDDON, 

Secretary  of  War. 

Of  this  curious  paper  two  remarks  are  to  be  made : 

1.  If  Mr. had  relied  for  exemption  upon  his  alienage  (a  plea  we  must 

suppose  him  unwilling  to  admit,  after  his  literary  exploits  for  the  Confederacy), 
then  it  was  quite  unnecessary  for  the  Secretary  to  assign  "  moreover"  his  lite 
rary  adventure  as  a  cause  of  exemption. 

2.  If  Mr. had  relied  for  exemption  upon  his  alienage,  it  was  not  for 

•the  'Secretary  of  War,  but  for  the  consular  authority  of  the  courts,  to  give  him 
•the  benefit  of  that  plea. 

This  record  may  appear  to  be  a  small  matter  for  history.  It  is  not :  it  is  one 
evidence,  selected  because  it  is  indisputable,  of  the  spirit  that  is  fast  reducing 
the  .administration  of  the  Confederate  affairs  to  schools  of  demagoguism  and 
.paltry  inventions  of  personal  vanity. 


THE  THIRD  TEAR  OF  THE  WAR.  185 

and   interests  at  the  instance  of  the  blind   passions   of  the 
army. 

The  annulment,  by  the  Confederate  Congress,  of  contracts 
heretofore  concluded  for  military  substitutes,  was  an  act  of  un 
paralleled  infamy.  In  making  the  assertion,  that  the  substitu 
tion  was  not  a  contract,  but  a  privilege  accorded  by  the  au 
thorities,  the  government  adopted  the  argument  of  the  despot : 
to  this  effect,  that  the  rights  of  the  people  is  the  pleasure  of  the 
sovereign,  to  be  enjoyed  with  becoming  humility.  In  assum 
ing  to  break  the  contract  as  to  the  principal,  and,  at  the  same 
time,  maintain  it  in  force  against  the  substitute,  the  govern 
ment  stultified  itself,  and  violated  the  plainest  and  justest  of 
legal  maxims,  that  a  contract  broken  on  one  side,  is  broken  on 
all  sides.  In  attempting  this  violence  in  the  face  of  the  admit 
ted  fact,  that  nearly  half  of  the  army  were  out  of  the  ranks, 
the  government  avoided  the  plain  duty  of  replenishing  the 
army  with  these  absentees ;  proposed  to  replace  seasoned  vete 
rans  by  raw  malcontents  ;  and,  for  a  nominal  accession  to  its 
military  forces,  to  sacrifice  recorded  pledges  ;  to  wound  the 
confidence  and  affections  of  the  people ;  and  to  perpetrate  a 
great  moral  evil,  for  which  the  compensation  in  any  practical 
benefit  was  utterly  disproportionate. 

If  such  an  act  of  perfidy  had  been  accomplished  by  the  Lin 
coln  government,  the  Southern  newspapers  would  have  ex 
claimed  against  it  as  an  unequalled  example  of  despotism. 
But  when  it  was  perpetrated  by  their  own  government,  South 
ern  journals,  with  few  honorable  exceptions,  were  base  enough 
to  sustain  or  disguise  it ;  and  one  Southern  Senator,  at  least — 
a  man  of  the  name  of  Brown — was  ready  in  his  official  seat, 
and  in  the  security  of  his  own  exemption  from  military  ser 
vice,  to  bully  the  people  with  an  insufferable  insolence,  and  to 
nourish  from  the  shelter  of  his  parliamentary  position,  the  vul 
gar  and  detestable  threat  of  "  military  power." 

But  it  is  not  necessary  to  pursue  here  the  legislation  of  the 
Confederate  Congress  on  military  subjects.  We  have  forborne 
to  say  here  that  the  condition  of  our  arms  was  desperate :  it 
was  critical,  but  there  was  no  real  occasion  for  despair,  or  for 
that  violent  anxiety  which  approaches  it.  There  was  yet  much 
room  for  hope.  We  have  stated  that  the  amount  of  absentee 
ism  in  the  army  was,  at  least  in  great  part,  the  fault  of  the  au- 


186  THE  THIRD  YEAR  OF  THE  WAR. 

thorities,  and  it  is  therefore  not  to  be  taken  as  the  indication  of 
decay  in  the  spirit  of  our  soldiery.  That  spirit  was  yet  brave 
and  resolute.  The  displacement  of  Bragg  from  his  command, 
which  was  at  last  unwillingly  made  by  the  President,  had  com 
posed  a  dangerous  discontent  in  the  armies  of  the  West,  and 
was  the  occasion  of  the  re-organization  of  our  forces  there,  and 
a  reassurance  of  the  spirits  of  the  troops.  In  Virginia,  Lee 
still  held  the  enemy  at  bay,  and  possessed  the  unanimous  and 
enthusiastic  confidence  of  the  country  and  the  army.  At 
Charleston,  Beauregard  had  checked  the  enemy,  broken  the 
line  of  his  successes  on  the  coast,  and  was  advanced  even  in 
his  former  reputation  as  a  skilful  commander.  If  the  prospect 
was  chequered  in  the  West,  it  was  without  a  serious  shadow 
in  the  East ;  and,  although  a  large  portion  of  the  Confederacy 
had  passed  into  the  possession  of  the  enemy,  the  general 
condition,  at  least,  externally,  was  not  so  serious  as  when, 
in  1862,  Richmond  was  threatened,  and  there  were  two  hund 
red  and  ten  thousand  Federal  soldiers  in  Virginia  alone. 


In  the  mean  time  there  came  a  new  and  powerful  appeal  to 
the  patriotism  and  resolution  of  the  Confederacy.  The  Yan 
kee  Congress  had  assembled  simultaneously  with  that  of  the 
Confederacy,  and,  for  the  first  time  in  the  war,  the  conditions 
upon  which  peace  would  be  made  with  the  South  were  offici 
ally  announced.  They  were  contained  in  the  message  and 
proclamation  of  Abraham  Lincoln.*  They  were  briefly  these: 


*  The  following  are  the  material  portions  of  this  remarkable  proclamation : 

Whereas,  In  and  by  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States,  it  is  provided 
that  the  President  shall  have  power  to  give  reprieves  and  pardons  for  offences 
against  the  United  States,  except  in  cases  of  impeachment,  and 

Whereas,  a  rebellion  now  exists  whereby  the  loyal  State  Governments 
of  several  States  have  for  a  long  time  been  subverted,  and  many  persons 
have  committed,  and  are  now  guilty,  of  treason  against  the  United  States, 
and 

Whereas,  with  reference  to  said  rebellion  and  treason,  laws  have  been  en 
acted  by  Congress  declaring  forfeitures  and  confiscations  of  property  and  lib 
eration  of  slaves,  all  upon  terms  and  conditions  therein  stated  ;  and  also^eclar- 
ing  that  the  President  was  thereby  authorized  at  any  time  thereafter,  by  proc- 


THE  THIRD  TEAK  OF  THE  WAE.  187 

the  forcible  emancipation  of  the  slaves  ;  the  perpetuity  of  con 
fiscations  ;  pardon  on  condition  of  an  oath  of  allegiance  to  the 
government,  to  the  Union,  and  to  the  Abolition  party  of  the 
North  ;  the  exception  from  this  pardon  of  all  important  ranks 
in  the  army,  and  conditions  in  political  life;  and  finally,  the 
monstrous  republican  anomaly  that  one-tenth  of  the  voters  in 
any  of  the  Confederate  States,  declaring  for  these  terms,  "should 
be  recognized  as  the  true  government  of  the  State."  In  pro- 


lamation,  to  extend  to  persons  who  may  have  participated  in  the  existing  rebel 
lion  in  any  State,  or  part  thereof,  pardon  and  amnesty,  with  such  exceptions, 
and  at  such  times,  and  on  such  conditions  as  he  may  deem  expedient  for  the 
public  welfare,  and 

Whereas,  the  Congressional  declaration  for  limited  and  conditional  pardon 
accords  with  the  well-established  judicial  exposition  of  the  pardoning  power, 
and 

Whereas,  with  reference  to  the  said  rebellion  the  President  of  the  United 
States  has  issued  several  proclamations  and  provisions  in  regard  to  the  libera 
tion  of  slaves,  and 

Whereas,  it  is  now  desired  by  some  persons  heretofore  engaged  in  said  re- 
bellion,  to  assume  their  allegiance  to  the  United  States,  and  to  reinaugurate 
loyal  State  Governments  within  and  for  their  respective  States  ; 

Therefore,  I,  Abraham  Lincoln,  President  of  the  United  States,  do  proclaim, 
declare,  and  make  known  to  all  persons  who  have  directly  or  by  implication 
participated  in  the  existing  rebellion,  except  as  hereinafter  excepted,  that 
a  full  pardon  is  hereby  granted  to  them  and  each  of  them,  with  restor 
ation  of  all  rights  of  property  except  as  to  slaves,  and  in  property  oases 
where  the  rights  of  third  parties  shall  Jiave  intervened,  and  upon  the  con 
dition  that  every  such  person  shall  take  and  subscribe  an  oath,  and  thence 
forward  keep  and  maintain  such  oath  inviolate,  and  which  oath  shall  be  reg 
istered  for  permanent  preservation,  and  shall  be  of  the  tenor  and  effect  follow 
ing,  to  wit : 

"  I,  —  — ,  do  solemnly  swear  in  the  presence  of  Almighty  God,  that  I  will 
henceforth  faithfully  support,  protect,  and  defend  the  Constitution  of  the  Uni 
ted  States  and  the  Union  of  the  States  thereunder,  and  that  I  will  in  like  man 
ner  abide  by  and  faithfully  support  all  acts  of  Congress  passed  during  the  ex 
isting  rebellion  with  reference  to  slaves,  so  long  and  so  far  as  not  repealed,  modi 
fied,  or  held  void  by  Congress  or  by  decision  of-  the  Supreme  Court,  and  that 
I  will,  in  like  manner,  abide  and  faithfully  support  all  proclamations  of  the 
President  made  during  the  existing  rebellion  having  reference  to  slaves,  so  %r 
as  not  modified  or  declared  void  by  decision  of  the  Supreme  Court.  So  help 
me  God." 

The  persons  excepted  from  the  benefits  of  the  foregoing  provisions  are  all 
who  are  or  shall  have  been  civil  or  diplomatic  officers  or  agents  of  the  so-called 
Confederate  Government ;  all  who  have  left  judicial  stations  under  the  United 
Stales  to  aid  in  the  rebellion  ;  all  who  are  or  shall  have  been  military  or  naval 
officers  of  said  so-called  Confederate  Government  above  the  rank  of  Colonel  in 


188  THE  THIRD  YEAK  OF  THE  WAK. 

posing  these  utterly  infamous  terms,  this  Yankee  monster  of 
inhumanity  and  falsehood  had  the  audacity  to  declare,  that  in 
some  of  the  Confederate  States  the  elements  of  reconstruction 
were  ready  for  action ;  that  those  who  controlled  them  differ 
ed,  however,  as  to  the  plan  of  action  ;  and  that,  "  by  the  pro 
clamation,  a  plan  is  presented  which  may  be  accepted  by  them 
as  a  rallying  pointy  and  which  they  are  assured  in  advance  will 
not  be  rejected  here." 

This  insulting  and  brutal  proposition  of  the  Yankee  govern 
ment  was  the  apt  response  to  those  few  cowardly  factions 
which  in  North  Carolina,  and  in  some  parts  of  Georgia  and 
Alabama,  hinted  at  "  reconstruction."  It  was  as  the  sound  of 
a  trumpet  to  every  brave  man  in  the  South  to  meet  and  to 
contest  a  question  of  life  and  death.  Appeals  had  formerly 
been  made  in  the  Confederacy  against  "  reconstruction,"'  on 
such  arguments  as  the  conduct  of  the  enemy  in  the  war ;  his 
political  prostitution ;  his  vandalism ;  and  sentimental  motives 
of  vengeance.  There  were  truth  and  eloquence  in  those  ap 
peals.  But  now  there  was  another  added  to  them  which 


the  army,  of  Lieutenant  in  the  navy ;  all  who  left  seats  in  the  United  States 
Congress  to  aid  the  rebellion : 

All  who  resigned  commissions  in  the  army  or  navy  of  the  United  States,  and 
afterwards  aided  the  rebellion,  and  all  who  have  engaged  in  any  way  in  treat 
ing  colored  persons  or  white  persons  in  charge  of  such,  otherwise  than  lawfully 
as  prisoners  of  war,  who  have  been  found  in  the  United  States  service  as  so} 
diers,  seamen,  or  in  any  other  capacity. 

And  I  do  further  proclaim,  declare,  and  make  known,  that  whenever,  in 
any  of  the  States  of  Arkansas,  Texas,  Louisiana,  Mississippi,  Tennessee,  Ala 
bama,  Georgia,  Florida,  South  Carolina,  and  North  Carolina,  a  number  of 
persons,  not  less  than  one-tenth  in  number  of  the  votes  cast  in  such  States, 
at  the  Presidential  election  of  the  year  of  our  Lord,  1860,  each  having  taken 
the  oath  aforesaid,  and  not  having  since  violated  it,  and  being  a  qualified 
voter  by  the  election  law  of  the  State  existing  immediately  before  the  so- 
called  act  of  secession,  and  excluding  all  others,  shall  re-establish  a  State 
Government,  which  shall  be  republican,  and  in  no  wise  contravening  said 
oath,  such  shall  be  recognized  as  the  true  Government  of  the  State,  and  the 
State  shall  receive  thereunder  the  benefit  of  the  Constitutional  provision  which 
declares  that 

"  The  United  States  shall  guarantee  to  every  State  in  the  Union  a  Republi 
can  form  of  Government,  and  shall  protect  each  of  them  against  invasion,  on 
application  of  the  Legislature,  or  of  the  Executive,  when  the  Legislature  can 
not  be  convened,  against  domestic  violence." 


THE  THIRD  YEAR  OF  THE  WAR.  189 

addressed  us  not  only  in  our  passions,  but  in  every  fibre  of  our 
selfishness,  and  in  every  ramification  of  our  interests.  It  was 
the  authoritative  exposition  to  the  South  of  the  consequences 
of  its  submission.  These  could  no  longer  be  misconstrued : 
they  were  gibbets,  proscription,  universal  poverty,  the  sub 
version  of  our  social  system,  a  feudal  allegiance  to  the  Aboli-s 
tionists  and  the  depths  of  dishonor. 


THE    SLAVERY    QUESTION    IN    THE    WAE. 

The  proclamation  of  President  Lincoln  was  made  under  cer 
tain  affectations  of  benevolent  zeal  for  the  negro.  He  declared 
that  his  former  "  emancipation"  proclamation  had  "  much  im 
proved  the  tone  of  public  sentiment  in  foreign  countries,"  and 
he  insisted  that  to  abandon  it  would  be  to  the  negro  "  a  cruel 
and  astounding  breach  of  faith." 

In  view  of  these  pretensions,  it  is  not  out  of  place  here  to 
make  a  brief  summary  of  the  true  questions  of  the  war,  and  its 
real  relations  to  negro  slavery  in  the  South. 

A  French  pamphlet  on  the  American  war,  published  at 
Paris,  holds  the  following  language : 

"The  pride  of  the  North  will  never  stoop  to  admit  the 
superiority  of  Southern  men  ;  and  yet  it  is  from  these  that  the 
Union  drew  its  best  statesmen  and  a  majority  of  its  presidents. 
The  pride  of  the  North  will  bend  only  to  necessity,  because  it 
has  not  kept  pace  with  the  progress  of  the  age.  To-day  the 
Americans  of  the  North  are  as  completely  foreign  to  the  family 
of  nations  as  they  were  twenty  years  ago.  They  understand 
nothing  but  the  narrowest  and  most  mechanical  mercantilism, 
the  art  of  purchase  and  sale ;  and  they  long  to  annihilate  the 
Confederate  States  in  order  that  the  South,  by  its  intelligence, 
its  enterprise,  and  the  talent  of  its  statesmen,  may  not  throw 

down  the  rampart  it  has  built  up  against  Europeanism 

The  Federals  are  so  well  aware  of  this  that  the  war  which  they 
are  waging  is  really  and  mainly  a  war  of  interest.  The  pro 
ducing,  agricultural  South  was  the  commercial  vassal  of  the 
North,  which  insists  upon  keeping  its  best  customer :  emanci 
pation  is  merely  a  skilful  device  for  entrapping  the  sympathies 
of  European  liberalism The  Northern  idea  of  the 


190  THE  THIRD  YEAR  OF  THE  WAR. 

abolition  of  slavery  by  making  the  negro  food  for  powder, 
or  by  exiling  him  from  his  home  to  die  of  hunger,  is  now 
thoroughly  understood  in  Europe.  Our  notions  of  philanthropy 
and  our  moral  sense  alike  revolt  from  these  ferocious  exagger 
ations  of  the  love  of  liberty." 

The  above  is  an  admirable  summary  of  the  questions  of  the 
war — especially  of  the  '•  slavery  question"  There  is  no  doubt 
that  the  Anti-Slavery  party  in  the  North  had,  through  the 
violence  of  its  measures,  and  the  exposure  of  its  hollow 
pretensions  for  the  negro,  lost  much  of  that  sympathy  in 
Europe  which  it  had  formerly  obtained ;  while  the  war  had 
also  given  occasion  to  intelligent  persons  in  all  parts  of  the 
world  for  a  more  thorough,  a  more  interested,  and  a  more 
practical  study  of  slavery  in  the  South.  The  old  stories 
which  the  newspapers  of  the  enemy  revived  of  fiendish 
masters  in  the  South,  and  pandemoniums  on  the  cotton  plan 
tations,  had  now  come  to  be  objects  of  scepticism  or  derision 
in  Europe. 

In  connection  with  the  subject  of  the  relations  of  slavery  to 
the  war,  it  becomes  interesting  to  inquire  what  real  benefits  to 
the  negro  were  accomplished  by  the  political  measures  of  the 
Lincoln  government.  The  famous  "  emancipation"  proclama 
tion  extended  "freedom"  to  the  negro  merely  to  subject  him 
to  a  worse  fate,  and  to  transfer  him  from  the  peaceful  service 
of  the  plantation  to  that  of  the  military  camp.  It  was  followed 
by  various  acts  of  Congress  to  enlist  the  negro  in  the  military 
service.  It  was  stated  by  Mr.  Seward,  in  a  diplomatic  circu 
lar,  dated  August  the  12th,  1 863,  that  nearly  seventy  thousand 
negroes  were  at  that  time  employed  in  the  Yankee  armies,  of 
whom  twenty-two  thousand  were  actually  bearing  arms  in  the 
field ;  and  at  a  later  date  (that  of  the  meeting  of  the  Yankee 
Congress  in  December),  the  whole  number  of  these  African 
allies  of  the  North  was  said  to  exceed  one  hundred  thousand. 
The  employment,  as  soldiers,  against  the  Confederacy,  of  this 
immense  number  of  blacks,  was  a  brutality  and  crime  in  sight 
of  the  world ;  it  was  the  ignoring  of  civilization  in  warfare ;  it 
was  a  savage  atrocity  inflicted  on  the  South ; — but  it,  cer 
tainly,  was  no  benefit  to  the  negro.  It  could  be  no  benefit  to 
him  that  he  should  be  exposed  to  the  fury  of  the  war,  and 
translated  from  a  peaceful  and  domestic  sphere  of  labor 


THE  THIRD  YEAR  OF  THE  WAR.  191 

to  the  hardships  of  the  camp    and  the  mortal  perils  of  the 
battle-field. 

The  scheme  of  the  colonization  of  the  negro  in  the  invaded 
districts  of  the  South  was  alike  destitute  of  benefit  to  him,  and 
destructive  of  the  white  "  civilization"' under  whose  auspices  it 
was  conducted.  Wherever  this  new  system  of  labor  was  intro 
duced,  the  negro  suffered,  the  plantation  relapsed  into  weeds, 
the  garden  disappeared,  and  desolation  and  ruin  took  up  their 
abodes.  It  had  converted  the  rice  coasts  of  South  Carolina 
into  barrens.  It  had  been  instituted  on  a  grand  scale  in  Louisi 
ana.  The  result  was,  to  use  the  language  of  a  Yankee  writer, 
this  beautiful  State  was  fast  becoming  "  an  alligator  pleasure- 
ground."  Where  formerly  had  flourished  rich  and  teeming 
plantations,  were  to  be  seen  here  and  there  some  show  of 
cultivation,  some  acres  of  corn  and  cane;  but  these  were 
"  government"  plantations  ;  the  able-bodied  negroes  had  been 
forced  into  the  Yankee  military  service,  and  a  few  aged  and 
shiftless  negroes,  who  poked  lazily  through  the  weed-growth, 
were  the  only  signs  of  labor  in  the  vast  districts  occupied  by 
the  enemy.  In  Louisiana,  where  the  Yankees  had  indulged 
such  hopes  of  "  infusing  new  life"  by  free  labor  and  the  scien 
tific  farming  of  Massachusetts,  the  development  of  the  country, 
its  return  in  crops,  in  wealth,  amounted  to  little  more  than 
nothing.  The  negro  had  merely  exchanged  his  Southern 
master  for  a  Massachusetts  shoe-maker,  who  was  anxious  to 
become  a  Louisiana  sugar-maker.  His  condition  was  not  im 
proved,  his  comforts  were  decreased ;  and  the  country  itself, 
redeemed  by  the  most  tedious  labors  from  the  waters  of  the 
Mississippi,  and  brought  to  a  point  of  fertility  unexampled  in 
American  soils,  was  fast  reverting  to  the  original  swamp. 
Louisiana  had  taken  more  than  fifty  years  to  raise  the  banks 
of  the  Mississippi,  to  drain  and  redeem  the  swamp  lands,  and 
to  make  herself  a  great  producing  State.  But,  said  the  New 
York  World,  "it  has  required  only  a  few  months  for  the 
Administration  at  Washington  to  prepare  the  State  for  its 
return  to  its  original  worthlessness ;  to  i  restore'  it  to  barbar 
ism  ;  to  re-people  it,  in  spots,  with  half-bred  bastards  ;  to  drive 
out  every  vestige  of  civilization,  and  to  make  the  paradise  of 
the  South  a  rank,  rotten,  miasmatic,  alligator  and  moccasin 
Bwanip-ground  again." 


192  THE  THIRD  TEAK  OF  THE  WAR. 

The  fact  is  indisputable,  that  in  all  the  localities  of  the  Con 
federacy  where  the  enemy  had  obtained  a  foothold,  the  negroes 
had  been  reduced  by  mortality  during  the  war  to  not  more 
than  one-half  their  previous  number. 

To  this  statement,  the  deliberate  assertion  of  President 
Davis  to  the  Confederate  Congress,  we  may  make  an  official 
addition  of  the  most  melancholy  interest.  In  the  winter  of 
1863-64,  the  Governor  of  Louisiana,  in  his  official  message, 
published  to  the  world  the  appalling  fact,  that  more  negroes 
had  perished  in  Louisiana  from  the  cruelty  and  brutality  of 
the  public  enemy  than  the  combined  number  of  white  men,  in 
both  armies,  from  the  casualties  of  war.  In  illustration  he 
stated,  that  when  the  Confederate  forces  surprised  and  cap 
tured  Berwick's  Bay,  last  summer,  they  found  about  two 
thousand  negroes  there  in  a  state  of  the  most  utter  destitution 
— many  of  them  so  emaciated  and  sick  that  they  died  before 
the  tender  humanity  of  the  Confederates  could  be  applied  to 
their  rescue  from  death. 

The  fate  of  these  poor  wretches  was  to  be  attributed  to  sheer 
inhumanity.  The  Yankees  had  abundant  supplies  of  food, 
medicines  and  clothing  at  hand,  but  they  did  not  apply  them 
to  the  comfort  of  the  negro,  who,  once  entitled  to  the  farce  of 
"freedom,"  was  of  no  more  consequence  to  them  than  any 
other  beast  with*  a  certain  amount  of  useful  labor  in  his 
anatomy. 

The  practice  of  the  enemy  in  the  parts  of  the  Confederacy 
he  had  invaded,  was  to  separate  the  families  of  the  blacks 
without  notice.  Governor  Moore  officially  testified  to  this 
practice  in  Louisiana.  The  men  were  driven  off  like  so  many 
cattle  to  a  Yankee  camp,  and  were  enlisted  in  the  Yankee 
army.  The  women  and  children  were  likewise  driven  off  in 
droves,  and  put  upon  what  are  called  "  Government  planta 
tions"— that  is,  plantations  from  which  the  lawful  owners  had 
been  forced  to  fly,  and  which,  the  Yankees  in  Louisiana  were 
cultivating. 

The  condition  of  the  negroes  at  the  various  contraband 
camps  in  the  Mississippi  valley  furnishes  a  terrible  volume  of 
human  misery,  which  may  some  day  be  written  in  the  fright 
ful  characters  of  truth.  Congregated  at  these  depots,  without 
employment,  deprived  of  the  food  to  which  they  had  been  ac- 


THE  TRIED  YEAR  OF  THE  WAK.  193 

custom ed,  and  often  without  shelter  or  medical  care,  these 
helpless  creatures  perished,  swept  off  by  pestilence  or  the  cruel 
ties  of  the  Yankees. 

We  may  take  from  Northern  sources  some  accounts  of  these 
contraband  camps,  to  give  the  reader  a  passing  picture  of  what 
the  unhappy  negroes  had  gained  by  what  the  Yankees  called 
their  "  freedom." 

A  letter  to  a  Massachusetts  paper  said  : — "  There  are,  be 
tween  Memphis  and  Natchez,  not  less  than  fifty  thousand 
blacks,  from  among  whom  have  been  culled  all  the  able-bodied 
men  for  the  militaiy  service.  Thirty-five  thousand  of  these, 
viz.,  those  in  camps  between  Helena  and  Natchez,  are  furnished 
the  shelter  of  old  tents  and  subsistence  of  cheap  rations  by  the 
Government,  but  are  in  all  other  things  in  extreme  destitution. 
Their  clothing,  in  perhaps  the  case  of  a  fourth  of  this  number, 
is  but  one  single  worn  and  scanty  garment.  Many  children 
are  wrapped  night  and  day  in  tattered  blankets  as  their  sole 
apparel.  But  few  of  all  these  people  have  had  any  change  of 
raiment  since,  in  midsummer  or  earlier,  they  came  from  the 
abandoned  plantations  of  their  masters.  Multitudes  of  them 
have  no  beds  or  bedding — the  clayey  earth  the  resting  place 
of  women  and  babes  through  these  stormy  winter  months. 
They  live  of  necessity  in  extreme  filthiness,  and  are  afflicted 
with  all  fatal  diseases.  Medical  attendance  and  supplies  are 
very  inadequate.  They  cannot,  during  the  winter,  be  disposed 
to  labor  and  self-support,  and  compensated  labor  cannot  be 
procured  for  them  in  the  camps.  They  cannot,  in  their  present 
condition,  survive  the  winter.  It  is  my  conviction  that,  unre 
lieved,  the  half  of  them  will  perish  before  the  spring.  Last 
winter,  during  the  months  of  February,  March  and  April,  I 
buried,  at  Memphis  alone,  out  of  an  average  of  about  four  thou 
sand,  twelve  hundred  of  these  people,  or  twelve  a  day." 

Another  Yankee  correspondent  wrote  as  follows  respecting 
the  negroes  who  had  come  into  Yicksburg  after  the  surrender 
of  General  Pemberton  : — 

"  About  the  1st  of  August  the  military  authorities  became 
alarmed  lest  a  pestilence  should  break  out  among  them  and 
extend  to  the  army.  Peremptory  orders  were  issued  to  at  once 
remove  across  the  river  all  negroes,  of  every  age  and  sex, 
whether  sick  or  well,  who  were  not  in  some  employment. 

13 


THE    THIRD    YEAR    OF    THE    WAR. 

41  One  morning  I  went  out  to  inform  a  certain  Lieutenant 

W ,  who,  with  an  inadequate  force,  was  executing  the 

order.,  that  one  of  them  in  the  Baptist  church  was  dead,  and 
that  another,  a  woman,  was  lying  behind  a  fence,  dying.  He 
told  me  that  he  had  detailed,  for  the  purpose  of  removing  the 
negroes,  20  army  wagons  ;  that  he  had  hauled  them,  well,  sick 
and  dead,  with  all  their  traps,  to  the  river,  where  he  had  a 
steamer  to  convey  them  across  to  a  point  opposite  the  lower 
part  of  the  city ;  that  he  had  one  wagon  to  haul  the  dead,  and 
that  some  days  he  found  as  many  as  twenty  ;  that  in  one  house 
he  found  six  dead  bodies,  with  living  ones  sitting  and  lying 
around  them,  apparently  unconscious  of  their  situation.  Holes 
were  dug  on  the  river's  bank  and  the  dead  buried.  The  search 
ing  out  and  removal  of  these  negroes  consumed  about  fifteen 
or  twenty  days.  About  three  hundred  were  thus  removed  to 
the  low  grounds  opposite  Yicksburg,  and  there  left  in  the 
weeds  without  any  shelter,  under  the  care  of  a  man  who  was 
appointed  to  organize  them  into  a  camp,  and  separate  small 
pox  cases  from  the  rest. 

u  The  chaplain  told  me  that  these  negroes  had  suffered  and 
were  still  suffering  untold  want  and  wretchedness ;  that  nearly 
four  hundred  had  died  since  he  had  taken  charge  of  them  ; 
that  from  sixteen  to  twenty  died  daily.  Sometimes  they  would 
crawl  off  into  the  woods  and  die,  where  their  bodies  would  be 
found  only  by  the  stench  which  arose  from  their  decay.  That 
there  was  no  white  man  with  them  but  a  nephew  of  his  ;  that 
rations  were  furnished  them  by  the  Government,  but  sometimes 
he  had  difficulty  in  getting  them  over  the  river ;  that  once 
they  were  five  days  without  receiving  any  food,  and  the  negroes 
in  their  despair  threatened  to  kill  him,  thinking  the  fault  was 
his.  He  also  stated  that  they  had  no  tents  or  shelter  except 
brush  to  shield  them  from  the  sun,  or  storm,  or  dews  of  night. 

Captain  A stated  to  me  that  there  were  in  his  camp  two 

thousand  ;  at  Young's  Point,  eight  thousand  five  hundred  and 
fifty-one  ;  on  Papaw  Island,  where  he  purposed  gathering  most 
of  them,  two  thousand  eight  hundred  ;  and  on  Black's  planta 
tion,  on  the  Yazoo,  two  thousand  four  hundred — in  all  over 
sixteen  thousand.  One  morning  I  went  among  the  wretched 
masses  where  they  were  hauled  to  the  bank  of  the  river,  pre 
paratory  to  being  sent  across.  I  tried  in  vain  to  find  some 


THE  THIRD  YEAR  OF  THE  WAR.  195 

women  who  were  able  to  work,  as  we  wished  their  labor  at 
our  house.  All  were  either  sick  or  taking  care  of  the  sick.  I 
saw  nothing  but  one  sad  scene  of  misery." 

The  war  had  tested  slavery  in  the  South  with  results  that 
could  not  escape  the  intelligent  attention  of  the  world.  While 
it  had  exhibited  the  horrors  of  "  emancipation  "  on  the  one 
side,  it  had  shown,  on  the  other,  the  docility  and  fidelity  of  the 
slave  in  his  proper  condition  of  servitude.  It  is  true  that  the 
negroes,  in  cases  of  invasion,  had  nocked  to  the  standards  of 
the  Yankee  ;  but  such  a  course  was  to  be  ascribed  purely  to 
their  ignorance  and  tractability,  seduced  as  they  were  by  the 
word  u  liberty,"  by  bribes  and  by  frauds.  It  was  no  evidence 
of  any  real  discontent,  still  less  of  hostility  to  the  masters  they 
deserted.  The  majority  of  negroes  lost  by  us  were  those  allured 
to  the  Yankees  by  promises  of  freedom,  no  work,  and  bountiful 
supplies  of  good  things.  Deceived  in  their  anticipation  of 
otiuin  cum  dignitate,  and  finding  the  spade  and  the  musket  in 
health,  and  cold  neglect  in  sickness,  in  lieu  of  it — their  wives 
and  children,  their  old  and  infirm,  subjected  to  privations  and 
sufferings  never  experienced  from  their  masters — as  many  as 
could  returned  home. 

In  all  the  war  there  had  been  no  servile  insurrection  in  the 
South — riot  a  single  instance  of  outbreak  among  the  slaves — a 
conclusive  evidence  that  the  negro  was  not  the  enemy  of  his 
master,  but,  in  his  desertion  of  him,  merely  the  victim  of 
Yankee  bribes.  Assured,  through  a  thousand  channels,  as 
these  negroes  were,  that  they  were  the  victims  of  the  most 
grinding  and  cruel  injustice  and  oppression ;  assured  of  the 
active  assistance  of  the  largest  armies  of  modern  times,  and  of 
the  countenance  and  sympathy  of  the  rest  of  the  world ;  assured 
that  such  an  enterprise  would  not  only  be  generous  and  heroic, 
but  eminently  successful,  our  enemies  had  heretofore  failed  to 
excite  one  solitary  instance  of  insurrection,  much  less  to  bring 
on  a  servile  war. 

It  was  thus  that  the  war  itself  had  greatly  cleared  up  our 
moral  atmosphere,  and  swept  away  much  mist  and  darkness 
of  doubt  and  delusion.  After  nearly  three  years  of  bloody 
struggle,  we  had  at  least  already  attained  this  result:  the 
assurance  that  it  was  we,  the  Confederates,  who  had  in  charge 
the  cause  of  freedom,  in  the  Western  continent  against  the  wild 


196  THE  THIRD  YEAR  OF  THE  WAR. 

anarchy  of  ignorant  mobs — we,  who  were  saving  civilization 
from  the  frenzy  of  democracy  run  mad — we,  above  all,  who 
were  guarding  the  helpless  black  race  from  utter  annihilation 
at  the  hands  of  a  greedy  and  bloody  "  philanthropy,"  which 
sought  to  deprive  them  of  the  care  of  humane  masters  only 
that  they  might  be  abolished  from  the  face  of  the  earth,  and  leave 
the  fields  of  labor  clear  for  that  free  competition  and  demand- 
and-supply,  which  reduced  even  white  workers  to  the  lowest 
minimum  of  a  miserable  livelihood,  and  left  the  simple  negro 
to  compete,  as  he  best  could,  with  swarming  and  hungry  mil 
lions  of  a  more  energetic  race,  who  were  already  eating  one 
another's  heads  off,  and  who  regarded  him  and  his  claims  as  an 
intrusion  and  superfluity  upon  earth — to  be  retrenched  and  got 
yid  of  in  the  most  summary  manner. 

The  affectation  of  the  Yankee  for  the  good  of  the  negro  was 
intended,  as  we  have  seen,  to  solicit  the  sympathies  of  Europe 
in  the  war.  It  was  not  very  effectual  in  this  respect.  But,  at 
least,  it  could  no  longer  hope  to  impose  upon  the  South,  and 
it  did  not  hesitate  to  unmask  to  it  its  brutal  and  ferocious  in 
sincerity.  In  the  mean  time,  the  "  war-to-the-knife"  party  in 
the  North,  with  the  large  accession  of  so  many  blacks  to  its 
armies,  and  a  recent  confirmation  at  the  polls  of  its  party 
strength,  was  preparing  for  new  careers  of  atrocity  and  crime.* 


*  In  referring  to  the  condition  of  the  negro  in  this  war,  we  use  the  term 
"  slavery"  in  these  pages  under  strong  protest.  For  there  is  no  such  thing  in 
the  South ;  it  is  a  term  fastened  upon  us  by  the  exaggeration  and  conceit  of 
Northern  literature,  and  most  improperly  acquiesced  in  by  Southern  writers. 
There  is  a  system  of  African  servitude  in  the  South  ;  in  which  the  negro,  so  far 
from  being  under  the  absolute  dominion  of  his  master  (which  is  the  true  mean 
ing  of  the  vile  word  "  slavery"),  has,  by  law  of  the  land,  his  personal  rights 
recognized  and  protected,  and  his  comfort  and  "right"  of  "happiness"  con 
sulted,  and  by  the  practice  of  the  system,  has  a  sum  of  individual  indulgences, 
which  makes  him  altogether  the  most  striking  type  in  the  world  of  cheerful 
ness  and  contentment.  And  the  system  of  servitude  in  the  South  has  this  pe 
culiarity  over  other  systems  of  servitude  in  the  world  :  that  it  does  not  debase 
one  of  God's  creatures  from  the  condition  of  free-citizenship  and  membership 
in  organized  society  and  thus  rest  on  acts  of  debasement  and  disenfranchise- 
ment,  but  elevates  a  savage,  and  rests  on  the  solid  basis  of  human  improve 
ment.  The  European  mind,  adopting  the  nomenclature  of  our  enemies,  has 
designated  as  "  slavery"  what  is  really  the  most  virtuous  system  of  servitude 
in  the  world. 


THE    THIRD   YEAR   OF   THE   WAR.  197 


HISTORY   OF   THE    "RETALIATION5'    POLICY. 

While  thus  the  war  waxed  in  the  hands  of  the  North,  the 
Administration  at  Richmond  had  nothing  to  respond  to  its 
ferocity  but  a  feeble  sentimentalism  and  a  weak  protest  for  the 
rights  of  humanity,  which  amused  the  enemy  and  disgusted 
the  stern  spirit  of  a  people  fighting  for  their  liberties.  u  Retal 
iation"  had  by  this  time  become  a  lost  word  in  our  vocabula 
ry.  In  the  year  now  well  nigh  past,  the  Yankees  had  enacted 
barbarities  greater  than  those  of  former  years,  in  proportion  as 
they  were  encouraged  by  impunity.  They  had  burned  the 
town  of  Darien,  and  this,  one  of  the  oldest  towns  in  Georgia, 
the  New  Inverness  of  Oglethorpe's  time,  was  now  a  plain  of 
ashes  and  blackened  chimneys.  They  had,  in  a  raid  on  the 
Combahee,  committed  to  the  flames  the  beautiful  town  of 
Bluffton.  They  had  attempted  to  destroy  Charleston  by  an 
incendiary  composition.  They  had  made  a  desert  of  the  whole 
country  between  the  Big  Black  and  the  Mississippi,  and  in 
every  district  of  the  South  which  they  had  penetrated,  houses 
had  been  either  pillaged  or  burnt,  crops  laid  waste,  and  enor 
mities  committed  which  exhausted  the  calendar  of  crimes. 

Yet  we  have  seen  that  when  General  Lee  invaded  the  terri 
tory  of  the  North  he  had  omitted  even  the  devastation  of  the 
enemy's  country,  had  paid  the  Yankees'  own  prices  for  their 
supplies,  and  had,  in  fact,  given  a  protection  to  their  property 
which  had  never  been  afforded  that  of  our  citizens,  either 
from  the  rapacity  of  the  soldier  or  that  of  the  impressment 
agent 

It  is  true  that  of  this  singular  behavior  President  Davis  said 
in  his  message  to  Congress:  "Though  the  forbearance  may 
have  been  unmerited  and  unappreciated  by  the  enemy,  it  was 
imposed  by  their  [our  soldiers']  own  self-respect,  which  for 
bade  their  degenerating  from  Christian  warriors  into  plunder 
ing  ruffians."  But  herein  the  President  sought  to  impose 
upon  the  public  mind  not  only  a  wretched  piece  of  sentimen 
talism,  but  a  glaring  fallacy,  alike  unworthy  of  his  intellect. 
The  punishment  of  the  Yankees  for  what  they  had  done  in  the 
South  certainly  did  not  mean  an  imitation  of  the  wrong— a 
retaliation  in  kind.  The  Southern  people  had  almost  unani- 


11)8  THE   THIRD   YEAR    OF    THE    WAR. 

mously  applauded  General  Lee's  orders  in  Pennsylvania  re 
straining  pillage  and  private  outrage.  But  there  were  penalties 
other  than  those  of  marauding  which  might  have  been  meas 
ured  out  to  the  enemy,  and  have  inflicted  upon  him  some 
injury  commensurate  with  what  we  had  suffered  at  his  hands. 
It  would  not  have  been  unjust,  it  would  not  have  been  immoral, 
it  would  not  have  detracted  from  our  "  self-respect,"  it  would 
not  have  endangered  the  discipline  of  our  troops,  it  would  not 
have  been  an  act  unbecoming  "  Christian  warriors,"  to  have 
laid  waste  the  enemy's  country,  if  done  under  the  justification 
of  retaliation,  with  the  deliberation  of  official  orders,  and  by 
the  army  acting  in  line  of  battle.  But  no  such  orders  were 
given  ;  no  such  line  of  battle  carried  with  it  the  chastisements 
of  real  war ;  and  the  fertile  acres  of  the  Pennsylvania  Yalley 
were  untouched  by  the  "  Christian  warriors." 

The  subject  of  "  retaliation"  brings  to  the  mind  a  number  of 
specific  acts  in  which  the  Confederate  government  had  failed, 
alike,  in  the  execution  of  justice  and  in  the  protection  of  its 
own  people.  The  record  of  these  affords  an  exhibition  of 
weakness  that  is,  positively,  without  parallel  in  the  history  of 
governments.  In  contrasting  the  rival  administrations  of  the 
North  and  South,  it  is  indispensable  here  to  make  a  brief  re 
view  of  the  incidents  to  which  we  have  referred  in  the  history 
of  the  u  retaliation"  policy.  They  are  rapidly  grouped  in  the 
summary  which  follows: 

1.  Shortly  after  the  capture  of  New  Orleans,  General  Butler 
executed  a  citizen  of  the  Confederacy,  William  B.  Mumford, 
for  the  extraordinary  crime  of  "  disrespect"  to -the  Yankee  flag. 

Instead  of  making  prompt  retaliation,  the  Confederate  gov 
ernment  found  a  conveniently  circuitous  course  in  addressing, 
several  months  after  the  event,  the  singularly  gratuitous  inquiry   • 
to  the  Lincoln  government,  whether  the  act  of  Butler  was 
"  approved"  by  it  ? 

The  authorities  at  Washington  returned  this  answer : 

HEADQUARTERS  OF  THE  ARMY,  ) 

WASHINGTON,  Aug.  9,  1862.   ( 
GEN'L  R.  E.  LEE,  Oomd'g,  &c. : 

General : — Your  two  communications  of  the  2d  inst.,  with 
in  closures,  are  received.  As  these  papers  are  couched  in  lan 
guage  exceedingly  insulting  to  the  Government  of  the  United 


THE  THIRD  YEAR  OF  THE  WAR.  199 

States,  I  must  respectfully  decline  to  receive  them.     They  are 
returned  herewith. 

Yery  respectfully, 

Your  ob't  serv't, 

H.  W.  HALLECK,  Gen'1-in-Chief  U.  S.  Army. 

And  here  ended  the  whole  matter. 

2.  At  Palmyra,  in  Missouri,  General  McNeil  murdered,  in 
cold  blood,  ten  soldiers  of  the  Confederacy. 

Although  the  Confederate  government  must  have  had  prompt 
official  intelligence  of  this  outrage,  it  was  only  several  months 
thereafter,  when  "the  Palmyra  massacre"  had  been  inconve 
niently  noised  in  the  newspapers,  that  President  Davis  ordered 
by  telegraph  the  execution  in  retaliation,  of  ten  Yankee  pris 
oners,  in  the  Department  of  the  Trans-Mississippi. 

The  bloody  telegram,  communicated  by  the  Richmond  au 
thorities  to  the  press  with  peculiar  liberality  of  information, 
quieted  it  and  consoled  the  public.  But  that  was  all ;  the 
telegraphic  order  was  never  executed ;  it  was  a  dead  letter, 
that  died  in  the  public  mind ;  and  the  Palmyra  massacre  was 
not  only  unavenged,  but  justice  itself  was  cheated  by  a  false 
and  most  unworthy  show  of  compliance  with  its  demands. 

3.  Under  the  "Death  Order"  of  Burnside,  two  Confederate 
officers,  Captains  Corbin  and  McGraw,  had  been  executed  for 
recruiting  white  soldiers  in  Kentucky,  a  part  of  our  own  terri 
tory  embraced  in  our  political  system  and  represented  in  our 
Congress ;  at  a  time  when  the  Yankees  were  recruiting  negro 
soldiers  in  our  political  jurisdiction,  and  in  the  circle  of  our 
homes. 

By  the  order  of  the  Confederate  government,  two  Yankee 
prisoners  were  selected  by  a  formal  lot  at  Richmond,  upon 
whom  retaliation  was  to  be  visited.  The  day  of  their  execu 
tion  was  fixed.  But  instead  of  hanging  them,  President  Davis 
arranged  a  back-door  of  mercy  by  commissioning  a  personage 
no  less  considerable  than  Mr.  Stephens,  Yice-president  of  the 
Republic,  to  make  arrangements  in  Washington  "to  temper 
the  present  cruel  character  of  the  contest."  The  "  back-door 
of  mercy"  was  closed  in  his  face.  Mr.  Stephens  went  as  far  as 
Hampton  Roads,  where  he  was  stopped  by  the  enemy's  admi 
ral,  wijh  the  curt  information  from  Washington,  that  the 


200  THE  THIRD  YEAR  OF  THE  WAR. 

enemy  wished  no  further  communication  with  the  Confederacy 
than  it  already  had  through  the  ordinary  military  channels. 

In  the  mean  time,  the  Yankee  government,  without  troub 
ling  itself  with  a  selection  by  lot,  had  summarily  designated 
two  of  the  most  important  prisoners  in  its  hands  as  victims  to 
repay  with  their  lives  the  tragedy  that  had  been  appointed  at 
Richmond.  The  consequences  were,  that  the  tragedy  did  not 
come  off,  but  the  Confederate  government  replied  with  some 
brave  words,  that  it  was  not  dismayed  by  the  threat,  but 
would,  at  its  convenience,  execute  the  penalties  it  had  pro 
nounced.  The  day  of  execution  passed ;  there  was  no  public 
notice  of  respite  or  pardon  ;  there  was  no  other  day  of  execu 
tion  appointed ;  and  the  convenient  silence  of  the  authorities 
was  evidence  enough  that  .the  matter  was  dropped,  and  that 
they  desired  it  to  pass  out  of  the  public  mind.  Thus  termin 
ated  this  issue  of  "  retaliation." 

4.  A  notorious  renegade,  Rucker,  was  taken  in  the  ranks  of 
the  enemy  in  Western  Virginia,  and  committed  as  a  spy  and 
murderer.     The  Yankees   threatened  the  life   of  one  of  our 
prisoners  of  war,  if  he  should  be  executed. 

The  criminal  was  kept  fifteen  months  without  a  trial,  and  at 
last  conveniently  escaped.  There  was  no  possible  occasion  for 
the  extraordinary  delay  of  a  trial,  unless  that  the  Confederate 
authorities  feared  to  risk  its  conclusion,  for  the  evidence  was 
ready,  abundant,  and  immediately  at  hand  to  convict  him. 

5.  The  Yankees   imprisoned   women  for  waving  handker 
chiefs  at  our  prisoners.     For  offences  not  much  more  consid 
erable,  they  put  them  in  political  jails,  and  subjected  them  to 
the  vilest  indignities,  and  to  penalties  which  made  no  distinc 
tion  of  sex. 

In  the  summer  of  1863,  a  Mrs.  Patterson  Allen,  a  Yankee 
woman,  was  detected  in  Richmond  holding  the  most  brutal 
and  treasonable  communication  with  the  enemy ;  pointing  out 
to  him  objects  for  his  resentment;  and  proposing  to  betray 
into  his  hands  as  prisoner  a  minister  of  Christ,  under  whose 
roof,  at  the  time  the  letter  was  written,  the  Yankee  spy  and 
traitress  was  herself  a  guest,  and  a  sick  child  of  the  minister 
was  dying  in  the  absence  of  its  father. 

By  special  direction  of  the  Confederate  Secretary  of  War, 
Mr.  Seddon,  Mrs.  Patterson  Allen,  a  fashionable  woman,  was 


THE  THIKD  YEAR  OF  THE  WAR.  201 

sent,  not  to  prison,  but  to  the  Asylum,  Francis  de  Sales,  in 
Richmond.  Her  trial  had  not  yet  taken  place ;  and  for  nearly 
six  months  the  vulgarity  of  a  legal  prison  was  spared  her,  and 
a  romantic  confinement  in  a  charitable  institution  was  the 
chivalric  invention  of  the  Confederacy  for  the  crime  of  trea 
son  ! 

6.  It  had  been  estimated  by  the  Confederate  Commissioner 
of  Exchange,  in  the  fall  of  1863,  that  the  enemy  held  in  im 
prisonment  not  less  than  one  thousand  citizens  of  the  Confed 
eracy,  who  had  been  captured  in  peaceful  employments,  and 
were  in  no  way  amenable  as  combatants  in  the  war. 

In  a  correspondence  on  the  subject  of  exchange  of  prisoners, 
the  Confederate  government  protested  against  the  outrageous 
practice  of  the  enemy  in  arresting  non-combatants  and  kid 
napping  private  citizens  within  his  military  lines  or  elsewhere 
within  his  reach.  But  the  enemy  continued  these  arrests,  and 
no  retaliation  was  ever  attempted.  At  the  time  unarmed  citi 
zens  of  the  Confederacy  were  torn  from  their  homes  in  Missis 
sippi  and  sent  to  the  jails  of  Memphis,  General  Lee  protected 
the  citizens  of  Pennsylvania,  and  allowed  them  even  to  avow 
their  political  animosity  in  his  camps. 

7.  When  General  Morgan  was  captured  by  the  enemy,  he 
was  carried  to  Cincinnati,  and  thence  he  and  twenty-eight  of 
his  officers  were  taken  to  Columbus,  Ohio,  where  they  were 
shaved,  their  hair  cut  close  by  a  negro  convict,  and  then  locked 
up  in  cells.     Seven  days  afterwards,  forty-two  more  of  General 
Morgan's  officers  were  conveyed  from  Johnston's  Island  to  the 
penitentiary,  and  subjected  to  the  same  indignities. 

A  correspondence  ensued  between  the  Commissioners  of 
Exchange  on  the  subject  of  these  cruelties  and  indignities,  in 
which  the  excuse  was  made  by  the  enemy  that  the  Federal 
authority  was  not  responsible  for  them,  implying  that  the 
State  of  Ohio  having  these  captives  in  her  custody,  had  chosen 
to  associate  them  with  convicts. 

Yet,  at  this  time,  our  government  was,  in  deference  to  "  gen 
eral  orders"  at  Washington,  treating  as  prisoners  of  war 
negroes  captured  in  arms,  who  were  clearly  responsible  to  the 
authority  of  the  States,  under  State  laws,  as  criminals.  No 
surrender  of  these  criminals  was  made  to  any  of  the  States  of 
the  Confederacy,  and  when  South  Carolina  made  some  motion 


202  THE  THIRD  YEAR  OF  THE  WAR. 

in  the  matter,  it  was  strangely  hushed  up,  and  the  negro  mal 
efactors  retained  to  this  day  by  the  Confederate  authority  in 
full  enjoyment  of  the  privileges  accorded  them  by  Yankee 
edict,  as  "  prisoners  of  war." 

8.  The  enemy  had  violated  the  cartel.     Under  this  cartel, 
for  many  months,  we  had  restored  to  the  enemy  many  thou 
sands  of  prisoners  in  excess  of  those  whom  he  held  for  ex 
change.     But  in  July,  when  the  fortune  of  war  favored  the 
Yankees,  and  they  held  the  excess  of  prisoners,  they  had  bro 
ken  the  cartel ;   they  had  refused  to  return  to  our  lines  the 
prisoners  taken  at  Gettysburg;    and  they  had  gone  further 
even  than  this  treachery,  for  they  had  not  only  retained  the 
prisoners  captured  by  them,  but  they  had  declared  null  the 
paroles  given  by  the  prisoners  captured  by  us  in  the  same 
series  of  engagements. 

What  were  the  returns  of  the  Confederate  government  for 
this  outrage  ?  It  allowed  the  prisoners  in  our  hands  comforts 
not  enjoyed  by  the  men  who  captured  them  in  battle.  It  per 
mitted  the  Yankee  captives  in  Richmond  to  receive  stores 
from  the  North  to  the  amount  of  half  a  million  of  dollars.  It 
indulged  them  in  a  festival ;  and  while  our  prisoners  were 
sighing  in  the  dungeons  and  penitentiaries  of  the  North,  or  at 
Johnston's  Island,  were  (to  use  President  Davis's  own  state 
ment),  dying  from  the  slow  tortures  of  cold,  "  exposed  to  the 
piercing  cold  of  the  Northern  lakes,  by  men  who  cannot  be 
ignorant  of,  even  if  they  do  not  design,  the  probable  result,"  a 
table  d'hote  was  spread  in  the  Libby  Prison  at  Richmond,  with 
all  the  luxuries  that  the  teeming  markets  of  the  Northern 
cities  could  afford.  And  this  licentiousness,  with  its  awful 
and  terrible  contrast  to  our  own  people,  went  by  the  name  of 
Christian  charity  in  Richmond,  and  was  a  pleasant  humanity 
to  be  told  to  Europe  ! 

9.  The  Confederacy  treated  prisoners  of  war  according  to 
the  rules  of  war ;  consulted  their  comfort  as  well  as  their  secu 
rity  ;  enacted  a  law  allowing  them  the  same  rations  as  Con 
federate  soldiers  in  the  field  ;    and,  in  fine,  considering  the 
scarcity  of  supplies  in  the  South,  made  a  provision  for  pris 
oners  of  war  of  extreme  generosity. 

It  is  true  that  statements  were  made  by  the  North  much  to 
the  contrary ;  that  Yankee  newspapers  circulated  ghastly 


THE  THIRD  YEAR  OF  THE  WAR.  203 

romances  of  their  starving  prisoners ;  and  that  pictorial  illus 
trations  of  the  horrors  of  Libby  Prison  and  Belle  Isle  were 
manufactured  into  a  public  document  by  a  Yankee  Congress 
for  circulation  throughout  Christendom.  However,  these  sto 
ries  were  but  little  entitled  to  the  credit  or  sympathy  of  the 
world  ;  so  often  had  it  been  imposed  upon  by  Yankee  fictions, 
and  so  little  reason  had  it  to  suppose  that  a  people  false  in  one 
particular  were  even  tolerably  truthful  in  another. 

It  was  not  to  be  supposed,  indeed,  that  in  a  war  in  which 
the  favorite  object  of  the  Yankee  was  to  plunder  and  starve 
the  Confederacy,  and  in  which  the  first  men  of  the  Confed 
eracy  were  forced  to  live  scantily  on  bread  and  beef,  and  to 
deny  themselves  such  luxuries  as  tea,  coifee,  sugar,  and  vege 
tables,  Yankee  prisoners  .of  war  could  have  many  of  the  com 
forts  which  they  had  been  accustomed  to  obtain  from  their 
own  bountiful  commissariat.  But  it  is  seriously  true  that 
they  fared  as  well  as  our  own  worn  and  hardened  soldiers  in 
the  field.  They  were  allowed,  in  many  instances,  to  receive 
supplies  from  friends  in  the  North,  and  it  frequently  happened 
that  the  occupants  of  the  Libby  actually  lived  better  than,  the 
cabinet  ministers  of  the  Cqnfederacy. 

What  was  the  Yankee  treatment  of  prisoners  of  war  in 
comparison  with  these  humanities  of  the  Confederacy?  Their 
system  of  imprisonment  was  essentially  a  penal  one.  They 
assumed  the  right  to  punish  prisoners  of  war;  to  enact  the 
part  of  magistrate  over  soldiers  and  citizens  of  the  Confederacy; 
to  sentence  them  to  terms  of  years,  to  add  ball  and  chain,  to 
subject  them  to  penalties  of  the  felon,  and  to  employ  upon 
them  the  tortures  of  the  common  penitentiary.  Even  women, 
accused  of  sympathy  with  the  South,  were  required  to  employ 
their  time  in  prison  with  "sewing  for  Union  soldiers."  The 
right  to  punish  prisoners  of  war  was  assumed  quite  as  much 
as  that  to  secure  their  persons. 

We  have  already  referred  to  the  outrageous  incarceration  of 
General  Morgan  and  his  command.  We  may  refer  here  to  the 
experience  at  length  of  one  of  these  unfortunate  captives, 
which  was  personally  narrated  to  the  writer  of  these  pages. 

This  statement  was  taken  from  the  lips  of  Captain  Calvin  C. 
Morgan,  a  brother  of  the  famous  General  Morgan. 

Captain  Morgan  was  among  those  of  his  brother's  expedi- 


20 1  THE   THIRD   YEAR   OF   THE    WAR. 

tion  who,  in  last  July,  were  incarcerated  in  the  penitentiary  of 
Ohio.  On  entering  this  infamous  abode,  Captain  Morgan  and 
his  companions  were  stripped  in  a  reception  room  and  their 
naked  bodies  examined  there.  They  were  again  stripped  in 
the  interior  of  the  prison,  and  washed  in  tubs  by  negro  con 
victs  ;  their  hair  cut  close  to  the  scalp,  the  brutal  warden,  who 
was  standing  by,  exhorting  the  negro  barber  to  "  cut  off  every 
lock  of  their  rebel  hair."  After  these  ceremonies,  the  officers 
were  locked  up  in  cells,  the  dimensions  of  which  were  thirty- 
eight  inches  in  width,  six  and  a-half  feet  in  length,  and  about 
the  same  in  height.  In  these  narrow  abodes  our  brave  soldiers 
were  left  to  pine,  branded  as  felons,  goaded  }yy  "convict- 
drivers,"  and  insulted  by  speeches  which  constantly  reminded 
them  of  the  weak  and  cruel  neglect  of  that  government,  on 
whose  behalf,  after  imperilling  their  lives,  they  were  now 
suffering  a  fate  worse  than  death.  But  even  these  sufferings 
were  nothing  to  what  was  reserved  for  them  in  another* 
invention  of  cruelty  without  a  parallel,  unless  in  the  secrets  of 
the  infernal. 

It  appears  that,  after  General  Morgan's  escape,  suspicion 
alighted  on  the  warden,  a  certain  Captain  Merion,  who,  it  was 
thought,  might  have  been  corrupted.  To  alleviate  the  suspicion 
(for  which  there  were  really  no  grounds  whatever),  the  brute 
commenced  a  system  of  devilish  persecution  of  the  unfortunate 
Confederate  prisoners  who  remained  in  his  hands.  One  part 
of  this  system  was  solitary  confinement  in  dungeons.  These 
dungeons  were  close  cells,  a  false  door  being  drawn  over  the 
grating,  so  as  to  exclude  light  and  air.  The  food  allowed  the 
occupants  of  these  dark  and  noisome  places,  was  three  ounces 
of  bread  and  half  a  pint  of  water  per  day.  The  four  walls 
were  bare  of  every  thing  but  a  water-bucket,  for  the  necessities 
of  nature,  which  was  left  for  days  to  poison  the  air  the  prisoner 
breathed.  He  was  denied  a  blanket ;  deprived  of  his  overcoat, 
if  he  had  one,  and  left  standing  or  stretched  with  four  dark, 
cold  walls  around  him,  with  not  room  enough  to  walk  in  to 
keep  up  the  circulation  of  his  blood,  stagnated  with  the  cold, 
and  the  silent  and  unutterable  horrors  of  his  abode. 

Confinement  in  these  dungeons  was  the  warden's  sentence 
for  the  most  trivial  offences.     On  one  occasion  one  of  our 
prisoners  was  thus  immured  because  he  refused  to  tell  Merion 
I 


THE  THIRD  YEAR  OF  THE  WAR.  205 

which  one  of  his  companions  had  whistled  contrary  to  the 
prison  nUes.  But  the  most  terrible  visitation  of  this  demon's 
displeasure  remains  to  be  told. 

Some  knives  had  been  discovered  in  the  prisoners'  cells,  and 
Merion  accused  the  occupants  of  meditating  their  escape. 
Seven  of  them,  all  officers,  were  taken  to  the  west  end  of  the 
building  and  put  in  the  dark  cells  there.  They  were  not 
allowed  a  blanket  or  overcoat,  and  the  thermometer  was  below 
zero.  There  was  no  room  to  pace.  Each  prisoner  had  to 
struggle  for  life,  as  the  cold  benumbed  him,  by  stamping  his 
feet,  beating  the  walls,  now  catching  a  few  minutes  of  horrible 
sleep  on  the  cold  floor,  and  then  starting  up  to  continue,  in  the 
dark,  his  wrestle  for  life. 

"I  had  been  suffering  from  heart  disease,"  says  Captain 
Morgan,  speaking  of  his  own  solitary  confinement  on  another 
occasion.  "It  was  terribly  aggravated  by  the  cold  and  horror 
of  the  dungeon  in  which  I  was  placed.  I  had  a  wet  towel,  one 
end  of  which  I  pressed  to  my  side ;  the  other  would  freeze,  and 
I  had  to  put  its  frozen  folds  on  my  naked  skin.  I  stood  this 
way  all  night,  pressing  the  frozen  towel  to  my  side  and  keeping 
my  feet  going  up  and  down.  I  felt  I  was  struggling  for  my 
life." 

Captain  Morgan  endured  this  confinement  for  eighteen 
hours,  and  was  taken  out  barely  alive.  The  other  prisoners 
endured  it  for  sixteen  days  and  nights.  In  this  time  they  were 
visited  at  different  periods  by  the  physician  of  the  penitentiary 
— Dr.  Loring — who  felt  their  pulses,  and  examined  their  con 
dition,  to  ascertain  how  long  life  might  hold  out  under  the 
exacting  torture.  It  was  awful,  this  ceremony  of  torture,  this 
medical  examination  of  the  victims.  The  tramp  of  the  prison 
ers'  feet,  up  and  down  (there  was  no  room  to  walk),  as  they 
thus  worked  for  life,  was  incessantly  going  on.  This  black 
tread-mill  of  the  dungeon  could  be  heard  all  through  the  cold 
and  dreary  hours  of  the  night.  Dr.  Loring,  who  was  compara 
tively  a  humane  person,  besought  Merion  to  release  the  un 
happy  men  ;  said  they  had  already  been  taxed  to  the  point  of 
death.  The  wretch,  replied,  "They  did  not  talk  right  yet." 
He  wished  them  to  humble  themselves  to  him.  He  went  into 
the  cell  of  one  of  them,  Major  Webber,  to  taunt  him.  "Sir," 
said  the  officer,  "  I  defy  you.  You  can  kill  me,  but  you  can 


206  THE  THIRD  YEAR  OF  THE  WAR. 

add  nothing  to  the  sufferings  you  have  already  inflicted.  Pro 
ceed  to  kill  me;  it  makes  not  the  slightest  difference.-" 

At  the  expiration  of  sixteen  days  the  men  were  released  from 
the  dungeons.  Merion  said  uhe  would  take  them  out  this  time 
alive,  but  next  time  they  offended,  they  would  be  taken  out 
feet  foremost."  Their  appearance  was  frightful;  they  could 
no  longer  be  recognized  by  their  companions.  With  their 
bodies  swollen  and  discolored,  with  their  minds  bordering  on 
childishness,  tottering,  some  of  them  talking  foolishly,  these 
wretched  men  seemed  to  agree  but  in  one  thing — a  ravenous 
desire  for  food. 

"I  had  known  Captain  Coles,"  says  Captain  Morgan,  "as 
well  as  my  brother.  When  he  came  out  of  his  dungeon,  I 
swear  to  you  I  did  not  know  him.  His  face  had  swollen  to  two 
or  three  times  its  ordinary  size,  and  he  tottered  so  that  I  had 
to  catch  him  from  falling.  Captain  Barton  was  in  an  awful 
state.  His  face  was  swollen  and  the  blood  was  bursting  from 
the  skin.  All  of  them  had  to  be  watched,  so  as  to  check  them 
in  eating,  as  they  had  been  starved  so  long." 

We  had  had  in  this  war  many  examples  of  Yankee  cruelty. 
Eut  the  statement  given  above,  may  be  said  to  take  precedence 
of  all  that  had  ever  yet  been  narrated  of  the  atrocities  of  the 
enemy ;  and  it  is  so  remarkable,  both  on  account  of  its  matter 
and  the  credit  that  must  naturally  attach  to  its  authorship, 
that  we  doubt  whether  the  so-called  civilized  world  of  this 
generation  has  produced  anywhere  any  well-authenticated 
story  of  equal  horror. 

In  his  message  to  Congress,  President  Davis  elo 
quently  adverted  to  the  savage  ferocity  of  the  enemy  and  his 
crimes.  But  he  had  not  a  word  to  say  of  what  had  become  of 
all  his  proclamations,  pronunciamentos,  gloomy  appeals  and 
terrible  threatenings  with  respect  to  retaliation.  The  truth 
was  they  had  never  resulted  in  one  solitary  performance  ;  they 
were  a  record  of  bluster  and  an  exhibition  of  weakness  and 
shame  upon  which  the  President  might  well  turn  his  back. 
It  is  remarkable  that  Mr.  Davis  in  all  these  proceedings  touch 
ing  questions  of  retaliation  should  have  shown  a  character  so 
different  from  that  which  he  exhibited  in  the  domestic  contro 
versies  and  intrigues  of  his  administration.  In  his  contro 
versies  with  his  military  officers,  he  was  very  obstinate,  very 


THE  THIRD  YEAR  OF  THE  WAR.  207 

bitter;  in  his  attachment  to  certain  favorites  and  to  certain 
measures  of  domestic  policy  he  was  immovable  and  defiant. 
It  was  only  when  his  duty  brought  him  in  contact  with  the 
enemy  that  these  imperious  traits  of  character  disappeared,  and 
were  replaced  by  halting  timidity  and  weak  hesitation. 

It  was  unfortunate  that  the  Confederate  President  ever  made 
any  threats  of  retaliation,  since  he  had  not  the  resolution  to 
perform  them.  They  had  been  ineffectually  repeated  until 
they  had  become  the  sneer  of  the  enemy.  But  the  most  un 
fortunate  consequence  of  the  want  of  a  proper  response  to  the 
cruel  assumptions  of  power  by  the  North  was  the  moral  effect 
it  had  upon  our  own  people ;  for  it  implied  a  certain  guilt,  a 
certain  moral  inferiority  in  the  South,  of  which  the  enemy  had 
the  right  to  take  advantage.  It  converted  the  relations  be 
tween  us  and  our  foes  to  those  of  the  malefactor  and  the  con 
stable  ;  it  depressed  our  sense  of  right ;  and  it  gave  to  the  sol 
dier  the  bitter  reflection  that  his  government  cared  but  little 
for  him,  in  that  martyrdom  on  the  gallows  or  captivity  in  dun 
geons  with  the  terrors  of  which  the  enemy  assailed  him. 

Finally,  there  is  this  to  be  said  of  the  rival  administrations 
of  Richmond  and  Washington :  that  if  in  the  former  there 
were  to  be  found  many  evidences  of  weakness,  these,  at  least, 
were  not  crimes,  while  if  in  the  latter  there  were  to  be  seen 
vigor  and  decision,  they  were  associated  with  the  insolence  of 
the  reprobate  and  the  inhumanity  of  the  savage.  If  the  his 
tory  of  the  retaliation  policy  and  other  questions  which  we 
have  traced,  exhibits  imbecility  on  the  part  of  the  Confederate 
authorities,  it  has  this  compensation :  that  it  has  inseparably 
connected  with  it  a  fearful  record  of  the  inhumanity  and  crime 
of  the  enemy. 

In  this  conflict,  which,  as  to  goverments,  was  that  between 
the  weakly  good  and  the  resolutely  evil,  the  people  of  the  Con 
federacy  had  but  little  to  expect  from  their  political  authori 
ties ;  but  it  was  precisely  the  condition  in  which  they  had 
much  to  expect  from  the  resources  of  their  own  righteous  and 
aroused  passions. 

In  connection  with  his  "peace"  proclamation,  the  Yankee 
President  pointed  with  an  air  of  triumph  to  the  great  resources 
of  the  North  for  the  prosecution  of  the  war.  There  was  an 
actual  surplus  in  its  treasury.  While  the  Confederacy  had 


203  THE  THIRD  YEAR  OF  THE  WAR. 

collected  only  one  hundred  millions  from  its  tax  and  revenue 
system,  the  receipts  of  the  Yankee  treasury  were  nine  hundred 
millions.  The  Yankee  army  was  increased.  The  Yankee 
navy  now  numbered  nearly  six  hundred  vessels,  and  seventy- 
five  of  them  were  iron-clads  or  armored  steamers.  The  Yan 
kee  political  parties  had  accommodated  their  differences  and 
no  longer  embarrassed  the  authorities  at  Washington.  "  The 
crisis  which  threatened  to  divide  the  friends  of  the  Union  is 
past,"  said  Mr.  Lincoln. 

The  Washington  government  had  now  a  united  people,  an 
unexhausted  treasury,  enlarged  military  resources,  and  a  con 
fidence  more  insolent  than  ever. 

Richmond,  in  December,  1863,  was  a  sombre  city.  An  air 
of  gloom  pervaded  the  public  offices.  In  Congress,  Mr.  Foote 
told  his  endless  story  of  official  corruption  and  imbecility,  and 
had  his  savage  jokes  on  "  the  pepper-doctor  from  North  Caro 
lina,"  who  governed  the  commissariat  of  the  Confederacy. 
There  were  no  social  gaieties,  although  disreputable  balls  and 
gambling  "  hells"  still  amused  those  immoral  mobs,  at  all 
times  inseparable  from  a  metropolis.  In  the  streets  there  was 
the  perpetual  juggle  of  bargain  and  sale,  apparently  uncon 
scious  of  the  war,  simply  because  engrossed  in  individual  ava 
rice  ;  the  clatter  of  the  auction  sales ;  the  levity  of  the  tho 
roughfare.  But  there  was  the  seriousness  of  anxiety,  if  not  the 
gloom  of  despair,  in  the  home,  in  the  private  sanctuary,  in  the 
public  office — in  every  place  where  thoughtful  minds  contem 
plated  the  future,  and  looked  beyond  the  circle  of  the  twenty- 
four  hours. 

Washington  was  gay,  in  the  mean  time,  not  with  thought 
lessness,  but  with  exultations  over  the  prospects  of  the  war, 
and  the  promises  of  its  government.  Balls,  "  diamond"  wed 
dings,  presidential  levees,  social  parties,  with  splendid  arrays 
of  silks  and  jewels,  with  all  the  fantasy  of  wealth,  the  inso 
lence  of  licentiousness,  and  the  fashionable  commerce  of  lust, 
amused  the  hours.  Mr.  Lincoln  was  jocose  again.  He  snapped 
his  fingers  at  "  the  rebellion."  He  attended  the  theatre  night 
ly.  This  piece  of  human  jacquerie  chattered  incessantly  over 
the  success  of  his  schemes.  The  Northern  newspapers  indulged 
the  almost  immediate  prospect  of  a  peace,  which  was  to  irra 
diate  the  Yankee  arms,  humiliate  the  South,  and  open  the  door 


THE  THIRD  YEAR  OF  THE  WAR.  209 

to  the  prosperity  of  the  conquerors  in  an  indiscriminate  plun 
der,  and  the  lasting  vassalage  of  the  vanquished.     The  New 
York  Herald  declared,  that  even  if  this  event  did  not  happen 
in  the  festivities  of  the  Christmas  season  of  1863,  it  would  cer-  i 
tainly  be  celebrated  in  the  early  part  of  the  ensuing  year. 

Intelligent  men  of  the  South,  understood  the  ap 
proaching  issues.  The  war  was  to  be  prosecuted  by  the  North 
with  certain  important  accessions  to  its  former  advantages ; 
and,  on  the  side  of  the  South,  there  was  a  demand  for  a  new 
measure  of  that  devotion  in  the  minds  of  the  people,  which 
wins  success  on  unequal  terms — and  without  which  all  expe 
dients  of  States,  all  violence  of  legislation,  and  all  commands 
of  authority  are  utterly  in  vain. 

14 


210  THE  THIKD  YEAR  OF  THE  WAK. 


CHAPTER  IX. 

The  Importance  of  the  Winter  Campaigns  of  the  "War. — A  Series  of  Remarkable 
Events.  —  Encouragement  of  the  Confederacy.  —  ROSSER'S  RAID.  —  A  Magnificent 
Prize. — PICKETT'S  EXPEDITION  AGAINST  NEWBERN. — The  Fight  on  Bachelor's  Creek. — 
Destruction  of  the  Yankee  Gunboat  "Underwriter." — The  Brilliant  Exploit  of  Com 
mander  Wood. — Results  of  the  Expedition. — THE  AFFAIR  OF  JOHN'S  ISLAND. — General 
Wise's  Fight. — THE  BATTLE  OF  OOEAN  POND. — History  of  the  Yankee  Expeditions  into 
Florida. — Lincoln's  Designs  upon  Florida. — Their  Utter  Defeat. — Political  Jugglery 
of  Seymour's  Expedition. — Price  of  "  Three  Electoral  Votes." — SHERMAN'S  EXPEDI 
TION  IN  THE  SOUTHWEST. — What  it  Contemplated. — Grant's  Extensive  Designs. — The 
Strategic  Triangle. — Grant's  Proposed  Removal  of  the  Mississippi  River. — Polk's  Re 
treat  into  Alabama. — Forrest's  Heroic  Enterprise. — His  Defeat  of  Smith's  and  Grier- 
son's  Columns. — Sherman's  Retreat  to  Vicksburg. — His  Disgraceful  Failure. — The 
Yankee  Campaign  in  the  West  Disconcerted. — The  Lines  in  North  Georgia. — Repulse 
of  the  Yankees. 

So  far  in  the  history  of  the  war,  the  winter  had  been  com 
paratively  an  uninteresting  period.  That  of  1863-64  was  not 
an  exception  to  this  observation.  But  although  there  was,  in 
this  period,  no  battles  on  the  dominant  military  lines  in  Vir 
ginia  and  North  Georgia,  there  was  a  series  of  remarkable 
events,  running  through  several  months,  each  one  a  marked 
success  for  the  Confederacy,  and,  collectively,  an  important 
sum  of  victory  which  did  much  to  raise  the  hopes  of  the  Con 
federacy  and  relieve  the  dark  days  in  which  the  year  1863  had 
expired.  These  events  transpired  at  considerable  distances 
from  each  other,  and  they  have  no  other  connection  than  a 
chronological  one,  and  their  singular  concurrence  in  uniform 
success.  In  this  connection  we  shall  treat  them. 


On  the  30th  of  January,  a  brilliant  expedition  of  General 
Kosser  in  the  Valley  district  culminated  in  the  capture  of  a  train 
of  ninety-three  wagons  loaded  with  commissary  stores  and  forage 
on  the  way  from  New  Creek  to  Petersburg,  and  was  prosecuted 
in  a  few  days  thereafter  to  a  most  unexpected  and  gratifying 


THE  THIRD  TEAK  OF  THE  WAR.  211 

success.  The  incidents  of  this  expedition  were  of  unusual  in 
terest. 

For  several  months  past  the  enemy  had  kept  a  garrison  at 
the  village  of  Petersburg,  in  Hardy  county,  as  an  outpost  to 
their  defences  of  the  Baltimore  and  Ohio  Railroad.  Peters 
burg  was  some  forty-two  miles  from  New  Creek,  their  princi 
pal  depot  for  supplies  and  operations. 

General  Early,  who  had  lingered  in  the  Yalley  since  the 
Averill  raid,  concluded  to  go  over  and  capture  this  party 
at  Petersburg,  numbering  about  one  thousand,  and  strongly 
fortified.  He  sent  General  Rosser's  brigade  (cavalry)  and 
four  pieces  of  McClannahan's  battery  (Imboden's  com 
mand)  through  Brock's  Gap,  and  pushed  on  himself  with 
Thomas's  brigade  of  infantry  from  New  Market,  by  Orkney 
Springs,  to  the  same  destination — Moorefield,  in  Hardy. 
Moorefield  is  between  Petersburg  and  the  railroad,  eleven 
miles  from  the  former  place.  Rosser  and  the  artillery  arrived 
first.  The  plan  was  for  Early  to  remain  with  the  infantry  at 
Moorefield,  preventing  the  enemy's  escape  to  the  railroad  by 
that  route,  while  Rosser  passed  over  Patterson  Creek  mountain 
— fifteen  miles  across — and  took  position  on  the  turnpike  lead 
ing  from  Petersburg  to  New  Creek.  When  Rosser  reached 
Moorefield  he  learned  that  the  road  from  that  place  across  Pat 
terson  Creek  mountain  to  the  turnpike  had  been  blockaded  by 
felling  numberless  trees  and  cutting  away  the  road  itself.  He 
also  learned  that  a  large  train  of  wagons  were  coming  up  from 
New  Creek  to  Petersburg,  heavily  guarded  by  infantry.  He 
started  across  the  mountain  with  his  brigade  and  the  four 
pieces.  In  the  gap  he  met  one  or  two  hundred  of  the  enemy, 
perfecting  the  blockade  and  guarding  the  pass.  They  were 
charged  by  the  Twelfth  cavalry  and  fled.  The  pioneers  went 
to  work  heartily.  Never  did  axes  fly  more  rapidly.  The  train 
was  near  the  point  on  the  turnpike  opposite  the  mouth  of  the 
gap.  If  it  passed  that  place,  the  probability  was  of  its  escape 
within  the  breastworks  at  Petersburg,  which  was  only  ten 
miles  distant.  The  fortifications  were  strong,  and  the  chances 
were  against  the  capture  of  this  place,  being  reinforced  by  the 
wagon  guard.  In  an  hour  the  obstructions  were  cleared  away, 
and  the  horsemen  and  cannon  rushed  into  the  turnpike,  and 
saw,  with  exultation,  a  long  line  of  snowy-covered  wagons 


212  THE  THIRD  YKAR  OF  THE  WAK. 

slowly  moving  towards  them.  Our  position  was  difficult.  If 
the  twelve  hundred  infantry  guarding  the  wagons  should  make 
a  stubborn  resistance,  the  force  at  Petersburg  might  come  up 
and  fall  upon  our  rear.  Kosser  had  only  about  eight  hundred 
cavalry.  The  dispositions  were  soon  made.  Colonel  White's 
(Lige)  battalion  and  three  pieces  were  sent  towards  Petersburg 
— the  balance  of  the  brigade  and  one  piece  of  artillery  ad 
vanced  upon  the  train.  The  enemy  were  so  certain  of  success, 
that  they  never  even  turned  their  wagons  around,  but  stopped 
them  facing  us  in  the  pike. 

The  Yankees  were  posted  at  right  angles  with  the  pike,  be 
hind  a  ten-rail  fence.  The  long-range  guns  were  dismounted 
and  advanced  as  infantry.  A  squadron  of  cavalry  were  sent 
to  the  left  to  flank  the  enemy,  while  another  was  placed  in  the 
pike.  The  piece  opened.  The  dismounted  men  trudged  through 
a  miry  meadow,  sinking  to  their  ankles,  right  up  a  hill  to  meet 
twelve  hundred  Yankees  with  their  guns  resting  upon  tlfe 
fence.  Four  hundred  cavalry,  on  foot,  in  an  open  field,  with 
boots  and  spurs,  and  without  the  advantage  of  order,  faced 
such  odds  and  such  position  !  The  enemy's  artillery,  which 
had  accompanied  the  train  from  "New  Creek,  thinking  all  safe, 
turned  back  a  few  miles  below,  hence  they  were  without  can 
non.  We  had  only  one  piece.  It  being  placed  in  a  flat,  and 
firing  up  hill,  the  recoil  came  almost  directly  against  the  axle, 
and  it  broke.  Still  it  continued  to  fire,  carrying  dismay 
among  the  wagoners  and  the  enemy's  line. 

The  action  lasted  about  twenty  minutes.  The  squadron  on 
the  left  charged  a  Yankee  squadron  up  hill,  some  on  foot  lead 
ing  their  horses,  and  as  each  one  reached  the  plateau  mounted 
and  spurred  after  the  frightened  enemy,  who  fled  without 
making  but  a  feeble  resistance.  Meanwhile  the  party  behind 
the  fence  were  routed  and  fled ;  but  being  too  swift  for  boots 
and  spurs,  the  cavalry  on  the  pike  charged  upon  them.  The 
immense  train,  now  in  a  mass  of  confusion,  so  blocked  the  pike 
as  to  prevent  overtaking  the  fugitives.  The  whole  train  was 
now  in  our  hands.* 


*  The  prize  is-  thus  described  by  a  correspondent  who  participated  in  the 
affair-:  "  There  stood  ninety-three  six-mule  wagons,  loaded  to  the  very  sheet 
with  commissary  stores,  new  gear,  new  wagons,  new  everything.  Contents, 


THE  THIRD  YEAR  OF  THE  WAR.  213 

After  securing  his  prize,  Kosser  moved  rapidly  on  to  co 
operate  with  Early  in  the  capture  of  Petersburg.  But  infor 
mation  of  the  advance  had  been  received,  and  the  garrison 
evacuated  the  place  during  the  night.  They  had  powerful 
works  and  six  pieces  of  cannon,  and,  if  they  had  been  less 
cowardly,  might  have  given  us  a  terrible  reception. 

Kosser,  when  he  had  discovered  the  escape  of  the  Yankees, 
wheeled  and  moved  upon  the  railroad,  destroying  two  bridges 
— one  over  Patterson  creek,  the  other  the  North  Branch  of  the 
Potomac. 

The  expedition  got  back  safely  into  the  valley.  Kosser 
brought  off  two  hundred  and  seventy  prisoners,  fifty  wagons 
and  teams,  twelve  hundred  cattle  and  five  hundred  sheep. 


The  town.of  Newbern,  situated  at  the  junction  of  the  Trent 
and  Neuse,  was  a  place  of  some  note  in  North  Carolina.  Soon 
after  the  fall  of  Koanoke  Island,  on  the  14th  day  of  February, 
1862,  it  fell  into  the  hands  of  the  Yankees,  since  which  time 
it  had  been  in  their  possession,  and  had  been  the  seat  of  some 
of  their  most  important  military  operations.  Immediately 
after  occupation,  extensive  fortifications  were  erected,  and  the 
lines  extended  over  some  twenty  miles  of  surrounding  country. 
The  regiments  stationed  here  had  been  composed  principally 
of  men  from  Massachusetts  and  New  York,  the  blackest  of 
Abolitionists,  full  of  schemes  and  plans  for  negro  emancipation, 
equalization  and  education.  Negro  regiments  had  been  organ 
ized  ;  companies  of  disloyal  Carolinians  put  in  service  against 
us ;  the  most  tyrannical  rule  established ;  and  both  men  and 
officers  had  been  guilty  of  the  grossest  outrages  and  atrocities. 
For  many  months  they  had  occupied  the  town  securely,  retain 
ing  undisturbed  possession,  scarcely  dreaming  of  the  possibility 
of  an  attack.  In  the  river  some  two  or  three  gunboats  were 


'  in  part/  corn,  oats,  flour,  bacon,  ad  infinitum ;  coffee,  two  thousand  pounds 
nicely  roasted ;  candles  (adamantine),  fifty  boxes  ;  sugar,  by  the  barrel ;  fresh 
oysters,  one  thousand  cans ;  brandy  peaches,  five  hundred  cans  ;  cheese,  hats, 
&c.,  &c.,  '  too  numerous  to  mention.'  One  bushel  of  pocket-knives." 


THE   THIRD   YEAR   OF   THE    WAR. 

generally  lying,  either  anchored  off  the  town  or  cruising  np  or 
down  the  Neuse  or  Trent,  to  the  great  terror  of  the  inhabitants 
living  near  their  banks. 

General  Pickett's  demonstration  upon  Newbern,  which  sur 
prised  the  Yankees,  on  the  1st  of  February,  appears  to  have 
followed  just  in  the  retiring  footsteps  of  a  Yankee  raiding 
party  which  had  been  sent  out  from  the  town.  He  had  with 
him  two  brigades  only — Clingman's  and  Hoke's — while  Gene 
ral  Barton  had  been  sent  up  the  Trent  to  fall  upon  the  town 
simultaneously  with  those  in  front.  An  expedition  of  boats, 
under  command  of  Commander  "Wood,  of  the  Confederate 
Navy,  was  to  make  a  demonstration  upon  the  enemy's  gun 
boats,  and  to  essay,  if  possible,  their  capture  or  destruction. 

Early  on  the  morning  of  1st  February,  the  Yankee  outposts 
at  Bachelor's  creek  were  attacked  by  the  Confederates.  The 
force  of  the  enemy  here  occupied  a  strong  line  of  fortifications 
along  the  edge  of  the  creek,  on  both  flanks  of  a  powerful 
blockhouse,  which  commanded  the  approach  to  the  bridge. 

While  a  furious  shower  of  shot  and  shell  was  kept  up  near 
the  bridge,  the  right  of  our  line  succeeded  in  pushing  through 
the  marsh  and  effected  a  crossing,  flanking  the  enemy.  A 
vigorous  attack  was  made  by  the  Confederates,  and  the  Yan 
kees  were  driven  out,  and  began  falling  back.  Those  of  our 
men  on  the  other  side  of  the  creek  rushed  upon  the  bridge, 
laid  the  pontoon  planks,  crossed,  and  joined  the  fight.  Charg 
ing  with  a  yell,  they  broke  the  line  of  the  enemy,  and  pursued 
them  to  the  cover  of  the  fortifications  of  Newbern. 

The  night  passed  without  a  general  attack  ;  but  not  without 
a  bold  achievement  by  the  Confederates. 

The  Yankee  gunboat,  Underwriter,  had  passed  up  the  Neuso 
river  near  Fort  Stephenson,  throwing  out  her  anchors  and 
placing  all  her  guns,  to  be  in  readiness  for  any  service  in  case 
of  an  attack  on  the  town.  About  one  o'clock  at  night,  the  sen 
tinel  saw  some  boats  approaching,  and,  hailing  them,  received 
no  reply.  They  were  Wood's  boats.  As  they  came  up  the 
Yankees  greeted  them  with  a  volley  of  musketry,  which 
flashed  in  the  very  faces  of  the  daring  Confederates,  the  balls 
whistling  unpleasantly  into  the  boats  or  into  the  water  beyond. 
But  the  boats  were  soon  at  the  side  of  the  steamer,  the  grap 
nels  thrown  on,  and  a  hand-to-hand  combat  joined  between 


THE  THIRD  YEAR  OF  THE  WAR.  215 

the  boarding-party  and  the  crew.  But  the  Yankees  soon  cried 
for  quarter,  and  the  steamer  was  ours.  The  Confederate  engi 
neer  Gill  was  lying  in  the  gangway,  shot  in  four  places  and 
mortally  wounded,  and  midshipman  Saunders,  cut  down  in  a 
hand-to-hand  light,  was  breathing  his  last  upon  the  decks. ' 

The  Underwriter  was  moored,  head  and  stern,  to  the  shore, 
under  three  of  the  largest  batteries,  and  hardly  a  stone's  throw 
from  the  wharf.  The  flash  of  the  guns  and  the  report  of 
musketry  had  aroused  the  soldiers  on  shore,  and  they  were 
now  witnesses  of  the  scene,  but  determined  not  to  be  inactive 
ones ;  for,  regardless  of  their  own  prisoners  on  board,  they 
fired  a  shell  into  the  steamer,  which,  striking  the  upper  ma 
chinery  and  exploding  on  the  deck,  produced  a  terrible  shock. 
To  spare  the  prisoners  and  wounded,  Captain  Wood  ordered 
them  to  be  put  into  the  boats  and  the  ship  made  ready  for  fir 
ing.  As  the  steam  was  down,  it  was  found  it  would  be  impos 
sible  to  take  time  to  get  it  up  under  the  heavy  fire  of  batteries 
not  one  hundred  yards  away ;  and  so,  the  wounded  and  pris 
oners  being  put  into  the  boats,  the  vessel  was  fired.  In  a  few 
minutes  the  Underwriter  was  one  mass  of  flame,  burning  up 
the  dead  bodies  of  the  Yankees  killed  in  action. 

General  Pickett  having  ascertained  the  strength  of  the  for 
tifications  of  Newberri,  concluded  that  it  would  be  useless  to 
risk  an  assault  upon  them,  and  appears  to  have  been  satisfied 
with  the  results  his  expedition  had  already  accomplished.  In 
deed,  he  represented  to  the  War  Department  that  he  had  at 
tempted  nothing  more  than  a  "  reconnoissance  in  force."  But 
the  results  of  the  reconnoissance  was  not  a  mean  victory. 
Pickett  had  met  the  enemy  in  force  at  Bachelor's  creek,  killed 
and  wounded  about  one  hundred  in  all,  captured  thirteen  offi 
cers  and  two  hundred  and  eighty  prisoners,  fourteen  negroes, 
two  rifled  pieces  and  caissons,  three  hundred  stand  of  small 
arms,  four  ambulances,  three  wagons,  fifty-five  animals,  a 
quantity  of  clothing,  camp  and  garrison  equipage,  and  two 
flags.  The  destruction  of  the  Underwriter  was  an  important 
part  of  the  success.  She  was  the  largest  and  best  of  the  Yan 
kee  gunboats  in  the  sounds ;  had  engines  of  eight  hundred 
horse  power,  the  largest  the  Yankees  had  taken  across  Hatteras 
swash ;  mounted  four  guns — two  large  eight-inch  shell  guns, 
one  twelve-pound  rifle,  and  one  twelve-pound  howitzer. 


216  THE  THIRD  YEAK  OF  THE  WAR. 


An  incident  "  worthy  of  note"  was  at  last  to  occur  in  what 
for  months  had  been  the  dull  vicinity  of  famous  Charleston. 

On  the  9th  of  February  the  enemy  came  over  in  force  from 
Folly  to  Kiawah  Island,  and  thence  crossed  over  at  a  place 
called  the  Haulover,  to  John's  Island,  killing,  wounding,  and 
capturing  some  nine  men  of  Major  Jenkins's  command.  With 
about  one  hundred  and  fifty  men  only,  he  fought  them  until 
night,  when  Colonel  Tabb  reinforced  him,  and  the  Colonel  im 
mediately  attacked  the  enemy  at  night,  with  but  a  battalion, 
and  staggered  them  so  that  they  paused  and  did  not  advance 
again  until  Colonel  Page  reinforced  them  with  another  battal 
ion  of  the  26th  Virginia,  the  next  morning. 

General  Wise  sent  forward  more  troops,  and  went  in  person 
on  the  10th,  and  got  there  just  as  five  hundred  and  fifty  in 
fantry,  with  one  battery  and  two  hundred  cavalry  were  drawn 
up  in  line  under  the  fire  of  two  thousand,  at  least,  of  the 
enemy.  Seeing  they  were  about  to  turn  our  left  flank,  Gen 
eral  Wise  ordered  our  forces  to  fall  back  to  a  point  called  the 
"  Cocked  Hat."  There  we  took  a  position  and  awaited  rein 
forcements.  They  came  up  in  time  to  increase  our  numbers  to 
about  one  thousand  infantry,  and  two  batteries  of  artillery. 

The  enemy  did  not  advance  until  the  llth.  By  3  P.  M.  they 
came  up  to  our  front.  Just  at  this  moment  General  Colquitt 
reinforced  us  with  nine  hundred  men.  At  3.25  P.  M.  we 
opened  upon  the  enemy  with  six  pieces,  the  Marion  battery, 
and  one  section  of  Charles's,  at  about  three-quarters  of  a  mile 
distance.  The  enemy  replied  with  three  pieces — Parrott's  and 
Blakely's.  They  ceased  firing  at  forty  minutes  past  5  p.  M., 
and  retreated  rapidly,  leaving  some  of  their  dead.  Four  bod 
ies  were  found  on  the  ground.  General  Wise's  men  were  too 
much  broken  and  fatigued  to  follow  them.  The  enemy  retired 
in  confusion  to  Haulover,  burnt  the  Seabrook  houses  there,  and 
before  day  crossed  back  to  Kiawah,  burning  the  bridge  behind 
them. 


THE  THIRD  YEAR  OF  THE  WAK.  217 

THE  BATTLE  OF  OCEAN  POND. 

But  the  month  of  February  was  to  be  distinguished  by  an 
important  battle,  and  that  in  a  part  of  the  Confederacy  which 
had  yet  attracted  but  little  notice  in  the  war. 

The  Yankees  had  invaded  Florida  in  the  spring  of  1862, 
when  they  occupied  Jacksonville.  They  then  said  they  came 
to  protect  the  city  against  the  reprehensible  incendiarism  of 
some  of  our  own  people  ;  and,  after  this  profession  of  protec 
tion,  and  making  great  promises  of  an  intention  to  hold  the 
place  forever,  thus  duping  a  good  many  disaffected  citizens  to 
take  sides  with  them  in  some  sort  of  a  State  government  which 
they  proposed,  and  finding  much  less  of  Union  sentiment  than 
they  expected,  but  more  of  a  military  demonstration  in  their 
front  than  they  looked  for,  they  departed,  after  a  three  weeks' 
stay  in  the  "  water-oak  city." 

They  came  again  in  October,  1862.  But  this  expedition 
turned  out  to  be  a  very  heavy  negro  trade  ;  and  General 
Brannon,  who  commanded  it,  after  collecting  a  large  number 
of  "  contrabands,"  took  his  departure. 

Again,  in  March,  1863,  the  Yankees  invaded  Florida,  to  try 
the  experiment  there  of  recruiting  blacks.  They  were  only 
partially  successful ;  and  the  third  experiment  of  invasion 
ended,  leaving  its  malignant  track  in  the  burning  of  two 
churches,  and  laying  waste  a  number  of  squares  of  private  re 
sidences  in  the  beautiful  little  city  of  Jacksonville. 

The  fourth  invasion  was  designed  at  Washington,  and  con 
templated  nothing  less  than  the  taking  and  holding  of  the 
whole  State  of  Florida,  reincorporating  it  into  the  Union,  and 
erecting  a  State  government  there  under  the  auspices  of  Mr. 
Lincoln's  private  secretary,  who  was  sent  to  Florida  to  engineer 
the  political  part  of  the  movement.  The  times  were  thought 
to  be  ripe  for  so  extensive  a  design  upon  Florida.  The  opera 
tions  against  Charleston  were  virtually  abandoned ;  surplus 
troops  were  on  hand  ;  and  deserters  and  fugitives  had  per 
suaded  the  Yankees  that  the  pathway  was  open,  and  that  all 
there  was  to  resist  them  was  a  local  force  of  not  more  than  a 
dozen  companies  scattered  broadcast  over  the  State.  It  was 
Boon  known  that  a  force  of  six  or  seven  thousand  Yankee 


218  THE  THIRD  YEAR  OF  THE  WAR. 

troops,  under  command  of  Major-general  Seymour,  had  left 
Charleston  harbor  in  eighteen  transports  for  what  was  supposed 
to  be  the  easy  conquest  of  Florida. 

The  State  was  in  General  Beauregard's  military  department, 
and  that  alert  commander  had  hastened  General  Colquitt  down 
to  meet  the  movement  of  the  enemy.  General  Finnegan  was 
in  command  of  a  small  force  at  Camp  Finnegan,  where  the 
enemy  had  expected  to  surprise  him.  He  eluded  him  by  with 
drawing  his  forces  through  the  woods.  The  enemy  advanced 
twenty  miles  on  the  railroad,  and  took  the  junction  of  the  other 
railroad  crossing  it,  the  place  or  village  known  as  Baldwin. 
Our  rail  lines  in  their  hands,  our  case  seemed  desperate.  The 
enemy  advanced  still  westward  towards  Lake  City,  which  had 
long  been  the  head-quarters  of  the  Eastern  Department.  His 
advance  cavalry  had  come  within  three  miles  of  Lake  City. 
But  troops  were  pouring  in  to  Finnegan.  General  Colquitt 
and  his  brigade  were  en  route.  The  celebrated  Chatham  artil 
lery  of  Savannah,  which  stood  the  brunt  of  Fort  Wagner  for 
long  weeks,  arrived.  They  were  hurried  down.  Body  after 
body  of  troops  arrived.  Clinch's  cavalry  were  expected  to 
enter  the  State  in  the  rear  of  the  enemy,  and  thus  cut  off  their 
retreat  while  the  main  body  of  the  troops  pushed  them  back. 
Our  forces  concentrated  and  fortified  at  Oulnstre,  a  spot  pre 
serving  its  Indian  name.  It  was  the  headwaters  of  a  creek  of 
that  name,  being  a  continuous  swamp  on  the  right  of  the  rail 
road,  inclining  southward,  Ocean  Pond,  or  one  of  the  inland 
lakes  of  Florida,  lying  not  far  north,  thus  forming  a  good  de 
fensible  position.  Our  forces  there  concentrated  about  five 
thousand  men.  Our  rifle-pits  and  redoubts  connected  with 
the  swamp  on  the  southland  Ocean  Pond  on  the  north. 

On  the  morning  of  the  20th  February,  General  Finnegan 
was  notified  that  the  enemy  was  approaching.  About  12 
M.,  they  were  reported  as  distant  four  miles.  The  command 
was  then  moved  out  to  meet  them. 

When  we  had  marched  three  miles  from  camp,  our  cavalry 
was  discovered  falling  back  rapidly.  Our  line  of  battle 
was  formed  at  once,  but  so  rapidly  did  the  enemy  advance  that 
a  furious  fire  commenced  before  the  line  was  completed.  The 
fire  soon  became  general.  The  battle  opened  at  2  o'clock  p.  M. 
For  two  hours  the  enemy  was  steadily  pushed  back,  though 


THE  THIRD  YEAR  OF  THE  WAR.  219 

they  resisted  most  obstinately.  "We  had  captured  in  tins  time 
five  pieces  of  artillery,  and  the  enemy  were  at  their  last  line. 
Just  then  our  ammunition  became  exhausted.  It  was  a  trying 
time  to  all  our  troops.  Their  conduct,  however,  was  above 
praise.  They  remained  steadfast  in  line  under  a  heavy  fire,  to 
which  there  was  scarcely  any  reply.  But  as  soon  as  cartridges 
were  distributed,  the  men  moved  forward,  and  drove  them  again. 

Just  at  sunset,  the  Twenty-seventh  Georgia,  commanded  by 
Colonel  Zachry,  made  a  furious  attack  upon  the  centre.  This 
movement  was  seconded  by  a  flank  attack  of  the  Sixth  Georgia, 
Colonel  Lofton,  upon  the  enemy's  right.  They  now  broke  and 
fled  in  great  confusion.  We  pursued  until  dark.  The  Yankees 
did  not  halt  until  they  had  placed  the  St.  Mary's  river  in  their 
rear,  twenty  miles  from  the  battle-field.  The  fruits  of  the  vic 
tory  were  five  pieces  of  artillery,  two  stands  of  colors,  two 
thousand  small  arms,  and  five  hundred  prisoners.  The  enemy 
left  upon  the  field  three  hundred  and  fifty  dead.  They  also 
abandoned  the  severely  wounded. 

Our  loss  amounted  to  eighty  killed  and  six  hundred  and  fifty 
wounded.  The  fight  was  in  the  open  pine  woods  peculiar  to 
Florida.  This  accounts  for  the  large  number  wounded  in  pro 
portion  to  the  killed.  The  enemy  could  not  have  lost  less  than 
two  thousand  killed  and  wounded.  General  Finnegan  reported 
that  the  roads  for  three  miles  were  strewn  with  the  enemy's 
dead  and  wounded.  More  than  one  half  of  the  two  negro 
regiments  that  Seymour  had  placed  in  front  were  said  to  have 
been  killed  and  wounded. 

The  enemy  fell  back  to  Jacksonville,  forty-five  miles  from 
where  they  fought  the  battle.  Our  forces  followed  them  along 
the  road,  and  stragglers  and  wounded  were  picked  up  as  they 
went.  A  lady  reported  that  General  Seymour  passed  along,  look 
ing  haggard  and  pale,  saying  he  had  lost  half  of  his  troops. 

The  victory  was  a  subject  of  extraordinary  congratulation. 
Had  the  enemy  been  successful  at  Ocean  Pond,  there  were  not 
five  hundred  men  between  them  and  the  capital,  and,  with  the 
capture  of  our  rolling  stock  at  Lake  City,  they  would  soon 
have  reached  Tallahassee  and  fallen  back  on  St.  Mark's  as  a 
base,  and  by  water  held  their  communications  perfectly.  Yiewed 
in  this  respect,  it  was  one  of  the  decisive  battles  of  the  war, 
and  had  preserved  the  State  of  Florida  to  the  Confederacy. 


220  THE  THIRD  TEAR  OF  THE  WAK. 

The  Yankee  journals  (probably  for  political  reasons)  were 
more  candid  in  their  admissions  of  defeat  at  Ocean  Pond  than 
on  any  other  occasion  of  disaster  to  them  in  the  war.  An  in 
vestigation  was  ordered  in  the  Yankee  Congress.  The  New 
York  Herald  declared  that  the  whole  movement  grew  out  of 
the  political  jugglery  for  the  next  Presidency,  and  the  whole 
thing  was  a  trick  to  secure  the  electoral  vote  of  Florida.  It 
said  that  "  a  thousand  lives  were  lost  in  the  attempt  to  get 
three  electoral  votes." 


SHERMAN'S  EXPEDITION  IN  THE  SOUTHWEST. 

In  the  winter  of  1864,  the  enemy  had  planned  a  grand  mili 
tary  combination  in  the  Southwest,  which,  properly  viewed, 
was  one  of  the  greatest  projects  of  the  war.  It  was  imperfect 
ly  known  by  the  Confederates  at  the  time,  who,  for  many 
weeks  vainly  imagined  the  object  of  Sherman's  movement  into 
Mississippi  at  the  head  of  an  infantry  column  of  thirty-five 
thousand  men. 

Events  developed  the  scheme,  and  indicated  Grant,  the  Yan 
kees'  present  military  idol,  as  its  originator.  It  was  the  con 
ceit  of  this  General  that  the  "  rebellion  "  presented  its  most 
formidable  front  in  North  Georgia  and  that  he  was  so  circum 
stanced  as  to  render  it  extremely  difficult  to  turn  his  advant 
age,  in  the  possession  of  Chattanooga,  to  account.  His  disad 
vantages  were  the  enormous  prolongation  of  the  line  connect 
ing  the  front  of  operations  with  the  base  of  supplies,  the  im 
perfect  character  of  the  communications,  and  the  difficulty  of 
accumulating  sufficient  supplies  for  along  and  severe  campaign 
in  the  Gulf  States. 

A  New  York  paper  declared  that  it  had  been  recognized  as 
a  necessary  condition  to  any  advance  from  Chattanooga,  look 
ing  to  great  and  decisive  results,  that  a  water  base  be  opened 
up,  whence  a  powerful  column  should  march  to  connect  with, 
and  support,  the  Union  army  advancing  from  Chattanooga. 
A  possible  point  from  which,  a  water  base  could  be  opened  up 
was  Mobile. 

It  was  known  by  the  beginning  of  February  that  three  dis 
tinct  Yankee  columns,  from  as  many  different  points,  were  now 


THE  THIRD  YEAR  OF  THE  WAR.  221 

under  way  in  the  Southwest.  A  very  powerful  cavalry  col 
umn,  under  command  of  Generals  Smith  and  Grierson,  had 
started  from  Corinth  and  Holly  Springs.  An  infantry  column, 
composed  of  the  two  corps  of  Hurlbut  and  McPherson,  under 
command  of  General  Sherman,  was  under  way  from  Yicksburg. 
A  combined  land  arid  naval  expedition  was  moving  from  New 
Orleans. 

While  Mobile  was  the  plain  objective  point  at  which  the 
latter  force  aimed,  it  is  probable  that  Sherman  did  not  design 
to  make  an  overland  march  from  Yicksburg  to  Mobile — about 
three  hundred  miles.  There  is  reason  to  believe  that  he  ex 
pected,  when  he  marched  out  of  Yicksburg,  to  reach  Selma, 
in  Alabama.  The  heavy  column  of  cavalry  that  started  from 
Memphis,  and  constituted  an  important  part  of  his  forces,  was 
to  move  rapidly  across  Mississippi  and  Alabama,  cut  the  in 
terior  railway  lines,  destroy  the  bridges  and  Government  work 
shops,  lay  waste  the  country,  and  gain  the  rear  of  General 
Polk,  harass  and  delay  his  retreat,  and,  if  possible,  force  him 
down  towards  Mobile,  while  Sherman  rushed  upon  him  in 
front.  Had  General  Polk  retreated  upon  Mobile,  the  attack 
upon  which  by  the  Federal  fleets  was  calculated  if  not  design 
ed  to  draw  him  in  that  direction,  Sherman  would  have  occu 
pied  Meridian,  Demopolis,  and  Selma,  and  thus  have  rendered 
his  escape  impossible,  and  the  fall  of  Mobile,  from  lack  of  pro 
visions  and  without  a  blow,  a  matter  of  absolute  certainty. 
The  possession  of  Mobile  and  Selma  would  have  given  the 
Federal  commander  two  important  water  bases,  the  one  on  the 
Mississippi,  at  Yicksburg,  the  other  at  Mobile,  on  the  Gulf, 
two  navigable  rivers  communicating  with  the  latter — the  Ala 
bama  and  Tombigbee — and  two  railways  ready  to  hand,  viz. : 
the  Mobile  and  Ohio,  and  the  Yicksburg  and  Jackson  roads. 
Once  in  possession  of  these  important  points  and  his  army  firm 
ly  established  in  the  triangle  formed  by  the  Alabama  and  Tom 
bigbee  rivers,  and  the  railroad  leading  from  Selma  to  Demop 
olis  and  Meridian,  and  we  should  no  more  have  been  able  to 
dislodge  him  from  his  position  than  we  had  been  to  drive  the 
enemy  from  the  Yirginia  Peninsula  and  Fortress  Monroe. 

It  must  be  confessed  that  there  were  in  these  combinations 
the  marks  of  a  bold,  brilliant,  original  conception.  General 
Grant  had  contemplated,  so  to  speak,  the  removal  of  the  Mis- 


222  THE   THIRD   YEAR   OF   THE   WAR. 

sissippi  river  from  Yicksburg  and  New  Orleans  to  Montgom 
ery  and  Mobile ;  while  at  the  same  time  the  organization  of 
this  line  would  have  operated  as  a  flank  movement  upon  Gen 
eral  Johnston's  army,  and  might  have  resulted  in  the  fall  of 
Atlanta,  arid  the  occupation  by  the  legions  of  the  enemy  of  the 
northern  half  of  the  great  State  of  Georgia.  He  proposed  thus 
to  get  possession  of  the  only  remaining  line  of  defence  which 
it  was  possible  for  the  Confederates  to  take  up  when  he  should 
advance  from  Chattanooga.  Military  men  of  the  North  had 
recognized  that,  if  the  Confederates  were  once  turned  at  Atlan 
ta,  the  line  of  the  Tombigbee  was  the  only  available  position 
left  them.  The  other  line  led  directly  into  a  cul-de-sac,  end 
ing  in  Florida.  If,  therefore,  the  present  movements  were  suc 
cessful,  it  would  clutch  this  single  position  at  which  the  Con 
federates  could  have  hoped  to  make  any  protracted  stand. 

But  Grant — and  it  will  be  found  to  be  his  characteristic 
fault — had  overtasked  himself.  His  formidable  combination 
was  to  fail  because  too  much  was  attempted,  and  because  it 
was  to  be  met  by  the  Confederates  with  consummate  skill  and 
courage.  The  co-operating  columns  were  too  widely  separated, 
were  exposed  to  too  many  chances  of  failure,  and  wrere  entrusted 
to  too  many  different  heads. 

The  expedition  so  largely  planned  was  inaugurated  by  the 
moving  of  the  first  two  columns.  Sherman  left  Yicksburg  the 
1st  of  February,  at  the  head  of  thirty -five  thousand  infantry, 
two  or  three  thousand  cavalry,  and  from  sixty  to  eighty  pieces 
of  artillery.  Almost  simultaneously  Grierson  or  Smith  began 
their  march  through  North  Mississippi  with  about  ten  thou 
sand  cavalry  and  mounted  infantry.  Mobile,  at  the  same  time, 
was  threatened  by  water  with  the  enemy's  fleet  of  gunboats, 
and  by  land  from  Pensacola  and  Pascagoula. 

General  Polk  had  recently  been  placed  by  the  Confederate 
authorities  in  command  of  the  Department  of  the  Southwest. 
He  assumed  command  late  in  December,  and  scarcely  had 
more  than  familiarized  himself  with  the  command,  and  had 
but  little  time  to  organize  his  troops  and  collect  together  all 
the  energies  of  his  department. 

General  Polk  took  the  field.  Forrest  was  still  detached 
from  the  main  army,  and  remained  so  as  to  watch  the  move 
ments  of  Grierson  and  his  command.  Sherman  with  his  thirty- 


THE  THIRD  YEAR  OF  THE  WAR.  223 

five  thousand  men  could  only  be  opposed  by  Loring,  French, 
and  Lee. 

From  Yicksburg  the  enemy  moved  very  rapidly  and  vigor 
ously  on  to  Jackson,  and  from  that  point  they  threatened  Me 
ridian,  the  railroad  centre  of  the  Southwestern  Department. 
At  this  time  General  Polk  borrowed  from  the  Mobile  garrison 
two  or  three  brigades  to  retard  the  enemy  in  order  to  enable 
him  to  save  his  supplies,  which  had  accumulated  at  different 
points  of  the  railroads  for  the  past  two  years.  It  would  have 
been  the  height  of  folly  to  have  given  the  enemy  battle  under 
the  circumstances.  Our  force,  when  strengthened  by  the  rein 
forcements  from  Mobile,  did  not  reach  over  half  that  of  the 
enemy,  inclusive  of  our  cavalry. 

With  the  additional  force  from  Mobile  the  enemy  was  checked, 
enabling  General  Polk  to  save  his  accumulated  stores  and  protect 
his  supplies.  The  little  army  fell  back  from  Brandon  in  per 
fect  order — slowly  and  successfully.  The  enemy  moved  his 
bodies  of  infantry,  artillery  and  cavalry,  with  caution  and 
prudence.  Lee  hung  upon  his  flanks  and  compelled  him  to 
move  in  compact  column,  giving  him  but  little  time  to  forage 
or  to  depredate  upon  the  country.  In  the  mean  time  General 
Polk,  with  all  his  acknowledged  energy,  was  moving  all  his 
stores  from  points  of  the  different  railroads  likely  to  fall  into 
the  enemy's  hands. 

On  Sunday,  the  14th,  Lieutenant-general  Polk  evacuated 
Meridian,  with  his  little  army,  heavily  pressed  by  an  enemy 
thirty-five  thousand  strong.  Before  the  evacuation,  however, 
every  article  belonging  to  the  different  departments  of  the  Gov 
ernment  had  been  moved.  The  rolling  stock  of  four  important 
railroads  had  been  saved — not  a  car  was  left,  and  scarcely  a 
wheel  left.  The  locomotives  and  cars  belonging  to  the  Mobile 
and  Ohio  road  were  safely  housed  in  Mobile.  Those  of  the  other 
roads  were  brought  to  the  Tombigbee  and  safely  placed  upon 
the  other  side  of  the  river.  It  was  a  literal  and  positive  evac 
uation  of  this  great  railroad  centre.  The  little  town  of  Merid 
ian  stood  lonely  amid  the  silence  of  pine  barrens,  without  a 
noise  to  disturb  its  solitude  or  to  arouse  its  inhabitants.  The 
garrison  belonging  to  Mobile  had  been  safely  returned  to  their 
duties  there,  and  Mobile  was  as  safe  as  the  department  at 
Kichmond  intended  it  to  be.  General  Polk  retired  to  De- 


224:  THE   THIRD   TEAK   OF   THE   WAK. 

• 

mopolis,   Alabama,    and    prepared   for   the  gathering   emer 
gency. 

The  enemy's  cavalry  column  under  Smith  and  Grierson  was 
to  pass  through  one  of  the  richest  districts  of  the  Confederacy 
to  the  assistance  of  Sherman. 

From  Pontotoc,  Mississippi,  to  the  southern  boundary  line  of 
Noxubee  county,  a  distance  of  eighty  or  ninety  miles  from, 
forty  to  fifty  in  width,  there  was  an  area  of  country  rich  as  the 
Delta  of  the  Nile.  Magnificent  plantations  were  spread  on 
either  side  of  the  Mobile  and  Ohio  Railroad,  level  as  the  sea, 
and  dotted  with  abodes  of  wealth  and  intelligence.  Pontotoc, 
Aberdeen,  Columbus,  and  Macon,  were  the  centres  of  local 
trade  for  all  this  region.  These  towns  had  an  aggregate  pop 
ulation  of  perhaps  thirty  thousand,  and  the  narrow  territorial 
limits  of  their  trade  illustrated  the  fact  that  this  district  was 
the  richest  granary  of  the  South. 

Owing  to  the  exhaustion  of  his  horses,  the  want  of  arms  and  , 
munitions,  and  other  causes,  Forrest  could  array  a  force  of 
only  two  thousand  four  hundred  men  to  confront  Smith  and 
Grierson's  column  of  seven  thousand  of  the  best  equipped  cav 
alry  the  Yankees  had  ever  put  in  the  field.  Forrest's  men, 
too,  were  mostly  new  and  untried,  especially  in  the  cavalry 
service.  He  had  recently  recruited  them  in  West  Tennessee. 
It  seemed  the  extreme  of  rashness  and  recklessness,  to  attempt 
with  such  a  force  to  arrest  the  march  of  a  column  of  seven 
thousand  splendidly  mounted  and  equipped  men,  led  by  expe 
rienced  officers,  whose  march  thus  far  had  been  uninterrupted, 
who  were  buoyant  and  confident,  and  were  charged  with  such 
an  important  mission.  The  junction  of  this  cavalry  force  with 
Sherman  at  Meridian,  was  the  key  of  the  Yankee  plan  for  the 
occupation  and  subjugation  of  the  Southwest.  If  successful, 
Sherman  would  have  been  in  a  condition  to  advance  upon 
Demopolis  and  Selma,  and  these  important  points,  as  well  as 
the  rich  countries  adjacent,  would  have  been  at  the  mercy 
of  the  enemy. 

General  Polk,  with  his  scant  infantry  force,  quickly  per 
ceived  the  momentous  issue  which  depended  upon  the  result 
of  the  cavalry  movement  from  Memphis,  and  after  securing 
his  small  army  on  the  east  side  of  the  Tombigbee,  and  remov 
ing  all  his  supplies  and  munitions  and  returning  to  Mobile  the 


THE  THIRD  YEAR  OF  THE  WAR.  225 

troops  he  had  borrowed  from  General  Mauiy,  sent  imperative 
orders  to  Lee  and  Forrest  to  unite  their  forces,  and  at  every 
cost  to  crush  and  drive  back  Smith  and  Grierson's  car-' 
airy.  i 

.  Lee  did  not  receive  these  orders  in  time  to  reach  Forrest 
with  his  force,  which  was  already  greatly  exhausted  by  the 
continual  skirmishing  with  Sherman's  column.  Forrest,  there 
fore,  was  left  alone  with  his  two  thousand  four  hundred 
men  to  perform  this  immense  undertaking.  Confronting  the 
enemy  on  the  broad  prairies  near  West  Point,  on  the  Tibbee 
river,  he  prepared  for  action.  The  enemy  formed  in  a  long 
and  most  imposing  line,  outflanking  Forrest  and  threatening 
the  instant  demolition  of  his  small  and  imperfectly  organized 
force.  The  charge  was  given,  and  the  Yankees  advanced  with 
great  boldness  and  an  air  of  certain  victory.  Great  was  their 
surprise  when,  as  they  approached  Forrest's  line,  they  observed 
his  men  slip  from  their  horses,  converting  themselves  into 
infantry,  each  man  taking  the  most  favorable  position,  availing 
themselves  of  every  advantage  the  ground  afforded,  and  await 
ing  with  the  utmost  coolness  the  impetuous  charge  of  the  Yankee 
chivalry.  On  came  the  splendidly  mounted  dragoons,  under 
those  far-famed  Yankee  chiefs,  Smith  and  Grierson,  with  such 
fierce  displays  of  valor  and  determination  as  augured  badly  for 
Forrest's  infantry  scouts,  scattered  through  the  bushes  and  over 
the  prairie  in  rather  an  irregular  and  unmilitary  style.  But 
these  valorous  horsemen  did  not  advance  far  before  the  balls  of 
two  thousand  riflemen  began  to  rattle  through  their  ranks  with 
fearful  effect.  Scores  of  men  and  horses  fell  at  the  first  fire, 
and  their  onward  movement  was  checked,  and  before  they 
could  recover  and  reform  the  volley  was  repeated — again  and 
again — until  dismay  and  terror  began  to  prevail  in  their  ranks, 
and  they  soon  broke  into  confusion  and  fled. 

Having  discovered  the  small  force  of  Forrest,  several  at 
tempts  were  made  by  Smith  and  Grierson  to  rally  their  men 
and  resume  the  offensive.  Their  efforts  were  successful  on  the 
hills,  just  beyond  Okalona,  when  the  last  grand  charge  was 
made  by  them  on  the  21st  of  February.  The  fight  commenced 
late  in  the  evening,  and  was  obstinate,  as  the  enemy  were 
forced  to  make  repeated  stands  to  hold  us  in  check,  and  to  save 
their  pack  mules,  &c.,  from  a  stampede.  It  closed  with  a 

15 


226  THE  THIRD  YEAR  OF  THE  WAR. 

grand  cavalry  charge  of  the  enemy's  whole  force.  We  re 
pulsed  them  with  heavy  loss,  and  completely  routed  them. 

General  Forrest's  command  was  too  tired  to  continue  the 
pursuit.  General  Gholson,  with  six  or  seven  hundred  State 
troops,  arrived  and  went  in  pursuit.  The  enemy  never  halted 
for  a  moment  in  his  retreat,  and  when  last  heard  from,  the 
remnant  of  this  splendid  force  was  hastening  fast  to  Memphis, 
in  far  different  plight  from  that  in  which  it  had  so  recently 
emerged  from  its  fortifications. 

The  disastrous  retreat  of  Grierson  and  Smith  upon  Memphis 
was  decisive  of  the  campaign.  Their  retreat  naturally  inter 
rupted  Sherman's  communications  all  along  the  line  of  the  Mo 
bile  and  Ohio  Railroad,  and  deprived  his  army  of  an  important 
source  of  supply,  without  which  he  was  incapable  of  maintain 
ing  his  ground.  "Worse  still,  the  falling  back  of  these  two  of 
ficers  took  away  from  him  the  cavalry  force  upon  which  he  re 
lied  to  prosecute  his  operations.  He  was  left  to  retrace  his 
steps  in  disappointment  and  disgrace,  and  to  retire  to  Yicks- 
burg.  Back  there  he  dragged  his  weary,  broken-down  column, 
in  a  demoralized  state ;  having  accomplished  not  a  single  mil 
itary  result  in  his  campaign,  and  having  achieved  no  other 
glory  than  that  of  warfare  upon  private  property  and  inoffen 
sive  people,  a  cheap  triumph  of  the  ruffian  and  the  plunderer. 

In  a  congratulatory  order  to  his  army,  General  Polk  said  : 
"  The  concentration  of  our  cavalry  on  the  enemy's  column  of 
cavalry  from  West  Tennessee  formed  the  turning  point  of  the 
campaign.  That  concentration  broke  down  his  only  means  of 
subsisting  his  infantry.  His  column  was  defeated  and  routed, 
and  his  whole  force  compelled  to  make  a  hasty  retreat.  Never 
did  a  grand  campaign,  inaugurated  with  such  pretension,  ter 
minate  more  ingloriously.  With  a  force  three  times  that  which 
was  opposed  to  its  advance,  they  have  been  defeated  and  forced 
to  leave  the  field  with  a  loss  of  men,  small  arms  and  ar 
tillery." 

The  Yankees  made  an  absurd  attempt  to  cover  up  Sherman's 
defeat  with  the  stereotyped  lie,  that  the  expedition  had  "  ac 
complished  all  that  was  intended."  It  could  hardly  be  possible 
that  the  object  of  an  expedition  of  such  magnitude  as  that  con 
ducted  by  Sherman  through  Mississippi  was  simply  to  inarch 
over  a  sterile  country  one  hundred  and  fifty  miles,  take  posses- 


THE  THIRD  YEAR  OF  THE  WAR.  227 

sion  of  a  comparatively  insignificant  point,  and  then  march 
back  again. 

The  truth  was,  Grant's  grand  combination  in  the  West  had 
completely  broken  down  ;  %nd  Sherman's  defeat  had  given  the 
Confederacy  two  months  more  time  to  prepare  for  the  great 
campaign  of  1864. 

While  the  events  we  have  been  narrating  were  transpiring 
in  the  Southwest,  as  part  of  the  grand  plan,  there  had  been  a 
movement  on  the  lines  in  North  Georgia.  Thomas,  in  imme 
diate  command  of  the  Yankee  forces  there,  had  attempted  an 
advance  on  the  25th  of  February.  For  a  whole  day  he  at 
tempted  to  penetrate  our  lines,  but  was  compelled  suddenly  to 
fall  back  upon  his  base  at  Chickamauga.  The  "  On-to- Atlanta" 
was  a  programme  all  parts  of  which  had  been  disconcerted, 
and  to  amend  which  the  campaign  in  the  West  had  to  be  put 
over  until  the  fighting  month  of  May. 


f    LIBRARY 

|j  UNIVERSITY  OF 

[CALIFORNIA. 


228 


THE    THIRD   TEAK   OF   THE    WAR. 


CHAPTER  X. 

Auspicious  Signs  of  the  Spring  of  1864.— Military  Successes  of  the  Confederates.— 
Improvements  in  the  Internal  Polity  of  the  Confederacy — Two  Important  Measures 
of  Legislation. — Revolution  of  our  Finances. — Enlargement  of  the  Conscription. — 
Theory  of  the  New  Military  Law.— A  Blot  on  the  Political  Record  of  the  Confeder 
acy. — Qualified  Suspension  of  the  Habeas  Corpus. — An  Infamous  Edict,  but  a  "  Dead- 
letter."— An  Official  Libel  upon  the  Confederacy.— The  Real  Condition  of  Civil 
Liberty  in  the  South. — The  Conscription  not  properly  a  Measure  of  Force. — Im 
pressments  but  a  System  of  Patriotic  Contribution.— Development  of  the  Yankee 
Government  into  Despotism.— An  Explanation  of  this.— The  Essence  of  Despotism 
in  One  Yankee  Statute. — MILITARY  RESOURCES  OF  THE  CONFEDERACY. — Its  Military 
System,  the  Best  and  Most  Elastic  in  the  World.— The  War  Conducted  on  A  Voluiir 
tary  .flam.— Supplied—Scarcity  of  Meat.— The  Grain  Product.— Two  Centres  of  Sup 
plies. — A  Dream  of  Yankee  Hate. — Great  Natural  Resources  of  the  North. — Summary 
of  the  Yankee  Military  Drafts.— Tonnage  of  the  Yankee  Navy.— The  Yankee  War 
Debt. — Economic  Effect*  of  the  War. — Its  Effects  on  European  Industry. — Yankee 
Conquest  of  the  South  an  Impossibility. — A  Remarkable  Incident  of  the  War. — 
DAHLGREN'S  RAID  AROUND  RICHMOND. — Kilpatrick's  and  Custar.'s  Parts  of  the  Expe 
dition. — Dahlgren  and  his  Negro  Guide. — His  "  Braves"  Whipped  by  the  Richmond 
Clerks  and  Artisans. — Death  of  the  Marauder. — Revelation  of  his  Infamous  Designs. 
— Copy  and  History  of  •'  the  Dahlgren  Papers." — A  Characteristic  Yankee  Apothe 
osis. — Ridiculous  and  Infamous  Behavior  of  the  Confederate  Authorities. — A  Bru 
tal  and  Savage  Threat. — President  Davis  in  Melodrama. 

THE  auspicious  signs  of  the  spring  of  1864  was  the  theme 
everywhere  of  the  Confederate  press.  We  have  seen  how  a 
current  of  success  had  set  in  for  the  South.  Mr.  Lincoln's 
shocking  experiment  in  Florida ;  Thomas's  disastrous  repulse 
in  North  Georgia ;  Sherman's  magnificent  failure,  were  glad 
auguries  for  the  Confederate  arms  in  the  coming  campaigns. 
The  situation  was  being  rapidly  improved.  Not  to  speak  just 
yet  of  our  achievements  in  Texas,  in  Western  Louisiana,  and 
along  the  banks  of  the  Mississippi,  we  could  refer  with  satisfac 
tion  to  Longstreet's  exploits  in  East  Tennessee,  subsequent  to 
the  raising  of  the  siege  of  Knoxville,  and  fancied  permanent 
occupation  of  East  Tennessee  by  the  enemy.  The  siege  ot 
Charleston  had  proven  only  a  running  sore,  where  the  strength 
and  wealth  of  the  enemy  were  wasted  without  the  slightest 
prospect  of  advancing  one  step  beyond  the  landward  beach  of 
Morris  Island.  Florida  had  afforded  nothing  but  disaster  to 
them,  and  glory  to  us.  The  rainy  season  would  soon  render  it 


THE  THIRD  YEAR  OF  THE  WAR.  229 

as  uninhabitable  to  a  Northern  army  as  it  has  hitherto  been 
unconquerable.  "Dixie,"  said  the  Yankee  papers,  was  "in 
fine  feather." 

This  period  of  military  success  was  coincident,  too,  with  cer 
tain  important  improvements  in  the  internal  polity  of  the  Con 
federacy.  The  Confederate  Congress  of  1863-64,  had  accom 
plished  two  important  measures  of  legislation.  It  had  revolu 
tionized  the  Confederate  finances  by  a  law  which  required  the 
currency  to  be  funded,  under  the  penalty,  within  certain  dates, 
of  thirty-three  and  a  third  per  cent.,  stopped  further  issues  of 
paper  money,  and  provided  for  the  public  revenues  by  heavy 
taxation,  and  the  sale  of  five  hundred  millions  of  six  per  cent, 
bonds.  It  had  enlarged  the  conscription  and  qualified  it  by  a 
system  of  details,  the  administration  of  which,  though  it  prop 
erly  resided  in  Congress,  and  should  not  have  been  delegated 
to  the  Executive  branch  of  the  Confederacy,  which  was  noto 
riously  corrupted  by  favoritism,  was  especially  designed  to 
compose  and  protect  the  vexed  industry  and  resources  of  the 
country. 

The  new  military  law  was  designed  to  devote  to  the  army, 
directly  or  indirectly,  the  whole  physical  power  and  energy  of 
the  country.  Providing,  first,  recruits  for  the  ranks  by  an  ex 
tended  conscription,  it  then  organized  the  remaining  labor  of 
the  country,  for  the  sole  use  and  benefit  of  the  army  and  the 
country's  cause.  The  great  pervading  principle  of  this  mili 
tary  bill  was  that  every  man  owed  to  his  country  the  duty  of 
defending  it,  either  in  or  out  of  the  ranks,  and  the  law  provided 
for  the  discharge  of  this  paramount  duty  by  putting  in  the 
ranks  all  men  capable  of  bearing  arms,  except  certain  persons 
who  could  be  of  more  service  to  the  cause  out  of,  than  in  the 
army.  Exemptions  and  details  were  to  be  permitted  upon  the 
great  and  important  principle  of  promoting  the  public  service. 
Recognizing  the  absolute  dependence  of  the  country's  cause 
upon  the  great  agricultural  interest,  the  Confederate  Congress, 
while  protecting  this  great  interest,  had  made  it  contribute  to 
the  support  of  the  army,  for  the  privilege  of  its  exemption — 
thus  protecting  the  production  of  the  country,  without  depriv 
ing  the  army  of  the  recruits  necessary  to  its  reinforcement. 

It  is,  however,  to  be  confessed,  with  pain,  that  the  Confed 
erate  Congress  of  1863-64,  marred  the  work  of  this  legislative 


230  THE  THIRD  YEAR  OF  THE  WAR. 

year  by  a  base  imitation  of  the  Washington  despotism  in  a  sus 
pension  of  the  habeas  corpus.  It  was  an  act  of  criminal  stu 
pidity,  the  fruit  of  an  inferiority  of  mind  in  our  legislators  that 
aped  the  precedents  of  the  Yankee.  It  is  true  that  the  law 
authorizing  the  suspension  of  the  great  writ  of  liberty  was 
qualified  by  a  stringent  bill  of  particulars.*  But  what  can  be 

*  The  following  is  a  copy  of  this  unfortunate  law : 
A  Ull  to  suspend  the  privilege  of  the  writ  of  HABEAS  CORPUS  in  certain  cases. 

Whereas,  the  Constitution  of  the  Confederate  States  of  America  provides,  in 
article  1,  section  9,  paragraph  3,  that  "  the  privilege  of  the  writ  of  habeas  corpus 
shall  not  be  suspended,  unless  when,  in  case  of  rebellion  or  invasion,  the  public 
safety  may  require  it ;"  and,  whereas  the  power  of  suspending  the  privilege  of 
said  writ,  as  recognized  in  said  article  1,  is  vested  solely  in  the  Congress,  which 
is  the  exclusive  judge  of  the  necessity  of  such  suspension  ;  and,  whereas,  in  tho 
opinion  of  the  Congress,  the  public  safety  requires  the  suspension  of  said  writ 
in  the  existing  case  of  the  invasion  of  these  States  by  the  armies  of  the  United 
States ;  and,  whereas  the  President  has  asked  for  the  suspension  of  the  writ  of 
habeas  corpus,  and  informed  Congress  of  conditions  of  public  danger  which  ren 
der  the  suspension  of  the  writ  a  measure  proper  for  the  public  defence  against 
invasion  and  insurrection  ;  now,  therefore : 

1.  That  during  the  present  invasion  of  the  Confederate  States,  the  privilege 
of  the  writ  of  habeas  corpus  be,  and  the  same  is  hereby,  suspended ;  but  such 
suspension  shall  apply  only  to  the  cases  of  persons  arrested  or  detained  by  order 
of  the  President,  Secretary  of  War,  or  the  general  officer  commanding  the 
Trans-Mississippi  Military  Department,  by  the  authority  and  under  the  control 
of  the  President.  It  is  hereby  declared  that  the  purposes  of  Congress  in  the 
passage  of  this  act  is  to  provide  more  effectually  for  the  public  safety  by  sus 
pending  the  writ  of  habeas  corpus  in  the  following  cases,  and  no  other  : 

I.  Of  treason  or  treasonable  efforts  or  combinations  to  subvert  the  Govern 
ment  of  the  Confederate  States. 

II.  Of  conspiracies  to  overthrow  the  Government,  or  conspiracies  to  resist  the 
lawful  authority  of  the  Confederate  States. 

III.  Of  combining  to  assist  the  enemy  or  of  communicating  intelligence  to 
the  enemy,  or  giving  him  aid  and  comfort. 

IV.  Of  conspiracies,  preparations  and  attempts  to  incite  servile  insurrection. 

V.  Of  desertions  or  encouraging  desertions,  of  harboring  deserters,  and  of 
attempts  to  avoid  military  service ;  Provided,  that  in  cases  of  palpable  wrong 
and  oppression  by  any  subordinate  officer,  upon  any  party  who  does  not  legally 
owe  military  service,  his  superior  officer  shall  grant  prompt  relief  to  the  op 
pressed  party,  and  the  subordinate  shall  be  dismissed  from  office. 

VI.  Of  spies  and  other  emissaries  of  the  enemy. 

VII.  Of  holding  correspondence  or  intercourse  with  the  enemy,  without  ne 
cessity,  and  without  the  permission  of  the  Confederate  States. 

VIII.  Of  unlawful  trading  with  the  enemy  and  other  offences  against  the 
laws  of  the  Confederate  States,  enacted  to  promote  their  success  in  the  war. 

IX.  Of  conspiracies,  or  attempts  to  liberate  prisoners  of  war  held  by  the  Con- 
federate  States. 


THE  THIRD  YEAR  OF  THE  WAR.  231 

most  said,  to  wipe  from  the  record  of  the  Confederacy  the  stain 
of  this  infamous  edict,  is,  that  it  was  never  put  into  practice. 
It  was  not  put  into  practice  for  the  simple  reason  that  there  was 
no  occasion  for  it;  no  one  doubted  the  integrity  and  patriotism 
of  our  judiciary ;  that  branch  of  the  government  was  practically 
permitted  to  continue  its  dispensations  of  law  and  justice;  arid 
the  worst  that  can  be  said  of  the  law  suspending  the  habeas 
corpus  was,  that  it  was  a  stain  upon  our  political  history.  It 
was  an  uncalled  for  libel  upon  the  Confederacy  ;  but  although 
it  might  blacken  our  reputation,  yet  it  is  a  satisfaction  to  know 
that  it  did  not  practically  aifect  our  system  of  liberties. 

In  contrasting  the  political  systems  of  the  North  and  South 
in  this  war,  we  find  an  invariable  superiority  in  the  latter  with 
respect  to  all  questions  of  civil  liberty.  This,  indeed,  is  to  be 
taken  as  the  most  striking  and  significant  moral  phenomenon 
of  the  war. 

Despite  the  conscription  and  other  harsh  necessities  of  legis 
lation,  the  principles  of  liberty  were  yet  substantially  secure 
in  the  Confederacy.  The  spirit  of  the  devotion  of  the  people 
was,  in  most  instances,  in  advance  of  the  demands  of  the  gov- 

X.  Of  conspiracies,  or  attempts  or  preparations  to  aid  the  enemy. 

XI.  Of  persons  aiding  or  inciting  others  to  abandon  the  Confederate  cause, 
or  to  resist  the  Confederate  States,  or  to  adhere  to  the  enemy. 

XII.  Of  unlawfully  burning,  destroying,  or  injuring,  or  attempting  to  burn, 
destroy,  or  injure  any  bridge  or  railroad,  or  telegraph  line  of  communication, 
or  other  property  with  the  intent  of  aiding  the  enemy. 

XIII.  Of  treasonable  designs  to  impair  the  military  power  of  the  Govern 
ment  by  destroying  or  attempting  to  destroy  the  vessels,  or  arms,  or  munitions 
of  war,  or  arsenals,  foundries,  workshops,  or  other  property  of  the  Confederate 
States. 

SEC.  2.  The  President  shall  cause  proper  officers  to  investigate  the  cases  of 
all  persons  so  arrested  or  detained,  in  order  that  they  may  be  discharged  if 
improperly  detained,  unless  they  can  be  speedily  tried  in  the  due  course  of  law. 

SEC.  3.  That  during  the  suspension  aforesaid,  no  military  or  other  officer 
shall  be  compelled,  in  answer  to  any  writ  of  habeas  corpus,  to  appear  in  person, 
or  to  return  the  body  of  any  person  detained  by  him  by  the  authority  of  the 
President,  Secretary  of  War,  or  the  general  officer  commanding  the  Trans- 
Mississippi  Department ;  but  upon  the  certificate,  under  oath,  of  the  officer 
having  charge  of  any  one  so  detained  that  such  person  is  detained  by  him  as  a 
prisoner  under  the  authority  aforesaid,  further  proceedings  under  the  writ  of 
habeas  corpus,  shall  immediately  cease  and  remain  suspended  so  long  as  this 
act  shall  continue  in  force. 

SEC.  4.  This  act  shall  continue  in  force  for  ninety  days  after  the  next  meeting 
of  Congress,  and  no  longer. 


232  THE  THIRD  YEAR  OF  THE  WAR. 

eminent.  The  people  of  the  Confederacy  were  more  heartily 
willing  than  the  Yankees  to  contribute  of  their  substance  and 
convenience  to  the  war,  but  much  less  willing  than  they  to 
sacrifice  their  civil  liberties  to  its  fancied  necessities.  In  the 
Confederacy  the  impressments  of  property  were,  in  fact,  in  the 
majority  of  instances,  voluntary  contributions.  In 'the  Con 
federacy,  the  conscription  was  not,  in  effect,  a  measure  of  force, 
but  was  rather  to  be  regarded  as  a  measure  to  organize  the 
proffer  of  patriotic  devotion,  and  to  equalize  its  service.  It  was 
the  purer  spirit  and  superior  motives  of  the  Confederacy  in  the 
war  that  made  its  administration  so  superior  to  that  of  the 
enemy,  with  regard  to  the  constitutional  standards  of  liberty, 
and  the  well  recognized  principles  of  conservatism. 

The  North  presented  a  different  picture.  The  process  by 
which  the  Yankee  Government  had  developed  itself  into  one 
of  the  vilest  despotisms  on  the  eartli  is  one  of  the  most  inter 
esting  problems  of  the  history  of  the  war.  In  an  address  of 
the  Confederate  Congress,  which  met  in  the  spring  of  1864:,  a 
reference  was  made  to  Yankee  despotism  as  "  engendered  in  a 
desperate  warfare  upon  the  liberties  of  another  and  kindred 
people."  The  language  of  this  reference  contains  the  key  of 
the  problem.  The  unholy  passions  of  this  war,  its  hate,  its 
greed,  its  dire  revenge,  its  desperation,  induced  the  people  of 
the  North  to  compromise  their  constitutional  rights.  They 
were  willing  to  purchase  the  gratification  of  their  passions  at 
the  expense  of  their  liberty,  and  those  who  gainsayed  the 
price  were  denounced  as  disloyal  persons,  and  threatened  as 
traitors. 

Personal  liberty  was  no  longer  a  thing  of  any*account  in 
the  eyes  of  "  the  best  government  the  world  ever  saw."  There 
was  a  law  on  the  statute-book  of  the  Government  at  Washing 
ton,  which  not  only  undertook  to  deprive  the  judicial  tribunals 
of  the  States  of  all  cognizance,  civil  and  criminal,  over  pro 
ceedings  instituted  against  persons  who  had  done  any  act 
injurious  to  a  citizen,  by  order  of  President  Lincoln,  but  which 
also  made  the  order  of  the  President,  or  of  any  one  acting 
under  his  authority,  a  full  and  perfect  defence,  in  all  courts,  in 
any  civil  or  any  criminal  proceeding  in  which  the  act  was 
drawn  in  question.  This  law  annihilated  the  liberties  of  the 
citizen  ;  perfected  the  despotism  at  "Washington  ;  and  gave 


THE  THIRD  YEAR  OF  THE  WAR.  233 

Abraham  Lincoln  a  power  above  all  judicial  redress  in  the 
country,  and  as  irresponsible  as  any  autocracy  on  earth. 


MILITARY  RESOURCES    OF   THE    CONFEDERACY. 

The  military  system  of  the  South  was,  perhaps,  the  most 
admirable  and  elastic  in  the  world.  The  conscription,  which, 
as  we  have  seen,  was  not  regarded  in  the  Confederacy  as  an 
edict  of  violence,  but  was  in  fact  merely  an  organized  form  of 
public  spirit,  was  constantly  and  harmoniously  in  operation  ; 
and  it  had  the  especial  merit  of  avoiding  that  agitation  and 
public  demoralization  inseparable  from  a  system  of  periodical 
drafts.  It  provided  a  class  of  reserves,  from  sixteen  to  eighteen 
years  of  age,  which  was  constantly  passing  within  the  limits  of 
the  active  military  age.  The  army  was  thus  steadily  replen 
ished.  It  was  qualified  by  a  system  of  details,  the  administra 
tion  of  which  was  to  be  constantly  concerned  in  adjusting  the 
demands  of  the  military  service  to  precise  necessities,  and 
accommodating  the  conscription,  either  enlarging  or  contract 
ing  it,  to  the  state  of  the  country.  The  military  system  of  the 
Confederacy  had  thus  an  elasticity  which  was  indeed  its  most 
valuable  quality. 

Ignorant  minds  appear  to  have  been  much  impressed  with 
the  idea  that  the  Confederacy  would  break  down  for  the  want 
of  men.  There  had  been  yearly  repetitions  of  this"  idea  since 
the  commencement  of  the  war  ;  and  yet,  strange  to  say,  for  all 
this  time  the  Confederate  armies  had  not  declined  in  numbers. 
Fighting  on  the  defensive,  their  losses  were  much  less  than 
those  of  the  Yankees ;  occupying  interior  and  shorter  lines, 
and  commanded  by  generals  who  carefully  economized  human 
life,  they  did  not  require  the  same  numbers  as  the  enemy  ; 
and,  even  if  they  were  decreasing,  there  was  this  compensa 
tion  :  that  while  they  declined  in  numbers,  the  Yankee  army 
was  declining,  at  a  much  more  rapid  rate,  in  a  personnel,  which 
had  come  to  be  mostly  composed  of  negroes  and  foreigners, 
and  in  those  measures  of  courage  and  devotion  which  best 
insure  victory. 

The  advantage  which  the  Confederacy  had  in  the  conduct 
of  the  war  was  that  every  thing  was,  really  and  substantially, 


234  THE  THIRD  YEAR  OF  THE  WAR. 

on  the  voluntary  basis.  The  impressment  law,  though  violent 
in  form,  like  the  conscription,  was,  in  fact,  the  conduit  of  patri 
otic  contributions.  Every  thing  that  was  asked  for  the  war 
was  generally  given  with  cheerful  consent ;  and  supplies 
poured  in  upon  the  Government,  from  private  sources,  much 
faster  than  the  transportation  of  rail-cars,  boats,  and  wagons 
could  dispose  of  them. 

The  scarcity  of  meat  was  a  difficulty  which  could  be  com 
paratively  endured.  There  was  an  impression,  long  prevalent 
with  us,  that  the  South  was  dependent  upon  the  North  for  a 
large  portion  of  the  meat  we  consumed.  We  actually  reared 
and  slaughtered  more  animals  in  proportion  to  population  than 
the  North,  and  it  was  simply  owing  to  the  fact  of  our  almost 
wasteful  use  of  meat,  in  which  they  economized,  that  we 
became  annual  purchasers  of  this  article  to  so  great  an  extent. 
Thrown  upon  our  own  resources,  diverting  our  agriculture 
from  the  production  of  our  great  commercial  staples  to  that  of 
breadstuffs,  and,  along  with  it,  to  raising  animals,  hogs  especi 
ally,  since  the  war  began,  in  sections  undisturbed  by  the 
march  of  armies,  or  not  aifected  by  epidemics  among  our 
stock,  the  supplies  of  meat  were  far  more  bountiful  than  ever 
before. 

But  although  it  must  be  confessed  that  our  meat  supplies, 
which  would  otherwise  have  been  superabundant,  had  been 
sadly  diminished  by  the  enemy's  occupation  of  Kentucky  and 
Tennessee,  and  the  isolation  of  the  Trans-Mississippi,  yet  none 
but  the  most  ignorant  could  doubt  our  sufficiency  of  other  sub 
sistence  in  a  country  where  the  cereals  might  be  produced  on 
every  acre  of  arable  land.  The  difficulty  was  in  the  ready 
equalization  of  supplies  by  transportation,  not  in  the  want  of 
them.  There  were  two  centres  of  supplies  in  the  Confederacy, 
inaccessible  to  the  enemy,  either  of  which  was  sufficient  to  sub 
sist  our  entire  army  and  people  ;  one  whose  lines  radiated 
through  north-western  Carolina  and  the  southern  tier  of  coun 
ties  in  Virginia,  and  the  other  in  the  unequalled  grain  districts 
of  south-western  Georgia  and  Alabama.  To  "starve"  the 
South  was  the  atrocious  dream  of  Northern  hate,  scarcely  the 
calculation  of  Yankee  shrewdness  and  intelligence. 

The  North  had  great  material  resources,  but  it  was  wasting 
them  in  a  war  the  advance  of  which  was  more  than  doubtful, 


THE  THIRD  YEAR  OF  THE  WAR.  235 

and  the  object  of  which  morally  unattainable.  It  had  put  two 
millions  of  soldiers  in  the  field.*  The  tonnage  of  its  navy  was 
but  little  short  of  half  a  million.  But  while  Yankee  pride 
took  delight  in  the  exhibits,  they  were  not  merely  displays  of 
power,  they  were  also  evidences  of  debt. 

The  expenditures  of  the  Yankee  Government  during  the  war 
had  constantly  exceeded  the  official  estimates,  while  the  receipts 
had  fallen  off. 

Mr.  Chase  estimated  the  expenses  for  1864  at  $750,815,088 ; 
Congress  had  already  appropriated  $l,104r,000,000/<?r  the  War 
Department  alone  !  The  rate  at  which  the  debt  had  accumu 
lated,  and  the  amount  of  claims  yet  to  be  adjusted,  made  it 
certain  that  the  public  debt  was  not  far  from  $3,000,000,000.f 


*  The  following  is  a  list,  compiled  from  official  sources,  of  Mr.  Lincoln's 

enormous  calls  for  troops  : 

April  16,  1861 75,000 

May  4,  1861 64,748 

From  July  to  December,  1861 500,000 

July  1,1862 300,000 

August  4, 1862 300,000 

Draft,  summer  of  1863 300,000 

February  1,  1864 500,000 

Total 2,039,748 

f  The  following  figures,  which  we  find  compiled  to  our  hand,  show  the  various 
loans  and  liabilities  of  the  Yankee  Government  thus  far  authorized  by  various 
acts  of  Ccngress : 

Loan  of  1842 $242,621 

Loan  of  1847 9,415,250 

Loan  of  1848 8,908,341 

Texas  indemnity  loan  of  1850 3,461,000 

Loan  of  1858 20,000,000 

Loan  of  1860 7,622,000 

Loan  of  1861 18,415,000 

Treasury  notes,  March  1861 512,910 

Oregon  war  loan,  1861 1,016,000 

Another  loan  of  1861 .      50,000,000 

Three  years  treasury  notes 139,679,000 

Loan  of  August,  1861 320,000 

Five-twenty  loan 400,000,000 

Temporary  loans 104,933,103 

Certificates  of  indebtedness 156,918,437 

Unclaimed  dividends 114,115 


Carried  over 921,557,777 


236  THE  THIRD  YE1R  OF  THE  WAR. 

Mr.  Chase's  statement  of  his  administration  exhibited  the  fol- 
xlowing  interesting  figures : 

Government  expenses,  72  years,  1789  to  1861,  $1,458,790,786 
Government  expenses,  4  years,  1861  to  1865,     2,692,086,941 

Excess  in  four  years  ....  $1,238,294,155 
So  we  find  that,  accepting  the  figures  and  estimates  of  the 
Yankee  Secretary  of  the  Treasury,  the  expenditures  of  the 
Government  during  the  administration  of  Abraham  Lincoln 
would  nearly  double  those  of  the  whole  period  from  the  estab 
lishment  of  the  government  to  the  inauguration  of  the  "  age 
of  purity." 

It  is  impossible,  with  the  imperfect  materials  at  present  at 
hand,  to  make  a  pecuniary  estimate  of  the  losses  due  to  the 
shock  and  derangement  of  the  war.  These  losses  were  not 
only  shared  by  the  North  and  South  ;  the  whole  commercial 
world  was  involved  in  the  misfortunes  of  the  war,  and  dragged 
into  its  vortex. 

The  South,  with  a  population  of  ten  millions,  of  whom  four 
millions  were  slaves,  with  about  one  million  of  these  engaged 
in  the  production  of  our  great  commercial  staples,  with  but 
little  artificial  labor,  but  with  only  the  simplest  implements  of 
husbandry,  her  peculiar  social  institution  and  her  climate,  had 
yet  furnished  all  the  vitality,  had  actually  created  and  brought 
into  existence  the  greater  part  of  all  the  great  wealth-pro 
ducing  artificial  labor  in  other  nations.  Her  productions,  which 
could  be  supplied  or  substituted  from  no  other  avenue  without 
enormous  additional  expense,  were  indispensable  to  the  capital 
invested  and  the  labor  developed.  English  factories  had  al 
ready  many  of  them  suspended,  or  were  reduced  greatly  in 
their  operations.  Northern  newspapers  informed  us  that  not  a 

Brought  over 921,557,777 

Demand  treasury  notes 500,000 

Legal  tenders,  1862 397,767,114 

Legal  tenders,  1863 104,969,937 

Postal  and  fractional  currency 50,000,000 

Old  treasury  notes  outstanding 118,000 

Ten-forty  bonds , 900,000,000 

Interest-bearing  treasury  notes 500,000,000 

Total $2,774,912,828 


THE  THIKD  YEAR  OF  THE  WAR.  237 

spindle  at  Lowell  was  in  operation.  The  manufacturers  of 
France  were  already  clamorous.  The  only  wonder  was,  that 
civilized  nations  could  so  long  remain  unmoved  by  such  catas 
trophes — so  long  remain  disinterested  spectators  of  a  war  upon 
the  South  for  the  destruction  of  our  system  of  natural  labor, 
whether  for  a  mere  sentiment  or  for  any  other  cause,  that  of 
necessity  involved  the  loss  to  them  of  an  immense  invested 
capital,  and  was  destructive  of  artificial  labor  equivalent,  in 
operatives,  to  many  hundred-fold  the  number  of  our  slaves. 

And  what  of  the  results  of  conquest  ?  what  of  the  indica 
tions  of  final  success  ?  what  of  the  signs  of  conclusion  had  the 
war  accomplished  ?  Eight  hundred  thousand  square  miles  was 
too  large  an  area  for  decisive  war.  When  we  imagine  the  toil 
some  marches,  the  mighty  mountains,  the  dense  and  unhealthy 
swamps,  the  innumerable  and  impassable  rivers  and  inlets, 
when  we  see  a  resolute  people  enduring  outrage  and  destitu 
tion,  ever  ready  to  sting  the  heel  of  the  invader,  it  is  obvious 
that  no  human  force  can  traverse  those  distances,  subdue  that 
people,  and  establish  any  other  government  than  what  such  a 
people  shall  approve.  A  territory  so  extensive  could  not  be 
held  by  the  policy  of  plunder  and  extermination.  The  miser 
able  gains  of  the  thief,  the  marauder,  the  ruffian,  and  the  plun 
derer — the  achievements  of  banditti,  might  discourage  any 
government  and  dissatisfy  any  soldiery.* 


*  A  curious  attempt  was  that  of  the  Yankees  to  represent  to  the  world  the 
extent  and  permanency  of  their  conquests  by  bogus  State  organizations  ;  alto 
gether,  one  of  the  vilest  cheats  of  the  war.  Arkansas,  Louisiana,  and  other 
States,  were  made  to  play  false  parts  upon  paper,  and  were  claimed  as  acquisi 
tions  for  "  the  Union,"  when  a  Yankee  dared  not  show  his  face  in  his  new  do 
minions  outside  of  his  picket  lines.  It  was  by  the  management  of  bayonets 
that  bogus  delegates  met  at  Little  Rock,  and  concocted  a  paper  which  they 
termed  a  "  Constitution,"  declaring  that  slavery  should  not  exist  in  the  State  of 
Arkansas,  and  sent  men  to  Washington  to  ask  to  be  received  back  into  the 
Union. 

In  Louisiana  the  farce  of  a  State  election  had  just  been  completed.  How 
far  such  an  election  represented  the  franchise  or  free  will  of  the  people  we 
may  infer  from  the  following  extract  from  General  Order  No.  23,  issued  by 
General  Banks,  and  paraded  in  every  Government  paper  the  morning  of  the 
election : 

"Open  hostility  cannot  be  permitted.  Indifference  will  be  treated  as  a 
crime,  and  faction  as  treason.  Men  who  refuse  to  defend  their  country  with 
the  ballot-box  have  no  just  claim  to  the  benefits  of  liberty  regulated  by  law. 


238  THE  THIRD  YEAR  OF  THE  WAR. 

We  leave  these  discussions  to  follow  the  current  of  military 
events. 


DAHLGREN'S  RAH>  AROUND  RICHMOND. 


In  the  month  of  March,  1864,  was  to  occur  one  of  the  most 
remarkable  incidents  of  the  war ;  inasmuch  as  it  was  the  oc 
casion  of  certain  documentary  evidence  of  the  savage  and 
atrocious  spirit  of  our  enemies,  which  heretofore,  though  it  had 
been  the  constant  assertion  of  the  Confederates,  had  been  per 
sistently  denied  in  Yankee  prints,  and  concealed  from  the 
world  by  brazen  lies,  audacious  recrimination,  and  the  stereo 
types  of  Yankee  hypocrisy. 

On  the  28th  of  February,  a  raid  was  undertaken  towards 
Richmond  by  the  Yankee  cavalry  under  General  Kilpatrick. 
Colonel  Ulric  Dahlgren,  a  son  of  the  Yankee  admiral  of 
Charleston  "sensation,"  was  second  in  command.  After 
reaching  Beaver  Dam  and  destroying  the  water  station  and 
tearing  up  a  few  hundred  yards  of  the  track  at  that  point,  the 
force  divided,  Kilpatrick  with  his  command  passing  through 
the  upper  part  of  Hanover  into  Louisa,  where  he  took  the 
mountain  road,  which  he  followed  until  he  struck  the  Brook 
turnpike,  which  led  into  Richmond. 

After  the  force  was  divided,  Dahlgren's  command  proceeded 
to  Frederick  Hall,  in  Louisa  county,  where  they  captured  sev 
eral  of  our  officers  who  were  holding  a  court-martial  at  the 
time.  Among  these  officers  was  Captain  Dement,  of  a  Balti 
more  battery,  who  was  compelled  to  follow  the  expedition. 
After  tearing  up  the  railroad  for  some  distance,  Dahlgren  pro 
ceeded  rapidly  towards  the  James  River  Canal,  which  he 
struck  in  Goochland  county.  He  burnt  a  grist-mill  here,  some 
barns,  injured  some  of  the  locks  on  the  canal,  and  did  other 

Whoever  is  indifferent  or  hostile,  must  choose  between 

the  liberty  which  foreign  lands  afford,  the  poverty  of  the  rebel  States,  and  the 
innumerable  and  inappreciable  blessings  which  our  Government  confers  upon 
its  people." 

Thirty-five  thousand  Louisianians  had  already  gone  to  partake  of  the  "  pov 
erty  of  the  rebel  States,"  and  about  eleven  thousand  played  the  farce  of  voting 
to  continue  "  the  blessings  which  the  Yankee  Government  confers  upon  its 
people." 


THE  THIRD  YEAR  OF  THE  WAK.  2oU 

trifling  damage.  His  men  were  allowed  to  amuse  themselves 
for  some  hours  at  the  farm-houses,  in  hacking  up  furniture  and 
stealing  silver  spoons.  His  purpose  was  to  cross  the  James 
river  here,  get  into  Richmond  by  a  surprise  on  the  south 
side,  and  do  his  peculiar  work  in  that  city  of  the  Confederacy. 

He  had  employed  a  negro  to  guide  him  to  a  ford  of  the  river. 
He  had  paid  him  for  the  proposed  service  with  what  appeared 
to  he  a  five-dollar  bill,  but  was  in  fact  a  barber's  "  token,"  in 
the  shape  of  a  bank  note,  after  the  ingenious  fashion  of  Yan 
kee  advertisements.  The  negro  conducted  him  to  a  ford,  but 
finding  the  water  too  high  tq  cross,  and  imagining  that  he  had 
been  duped,  Dahlgren  turned  upon  the  helpless  black,  had 
him  instantly  hanged,  and  to  expedite  the  horrible  deed, 
furnished  a  rein  from  his  own  bridle  to  strangle  his  victim. 

Finding  that  he  could  not  cross  the  river,  Dahlgren  direct 
ed  his  movements  to  make  a  junction  with  Kilpatrick.  But 
in  the  mean  time  all  the  other  parts  of  the  expedition  had 
failed. 

One  part  had  been  to  distract  attention  by  a  movement  of 
General  Ouster,  with  cavalry  and  artillery,  in  the  direction  of 
Charlottesville.  It  had  come  to  grief.  It  had  reached  the 
vicinity  of  Rio  Mills,  where  Stuart's  horse  artillery,  under 
Major  Beckham,  was  stationed.  As  soon  as  the  enemy  crossed 
the  Rivanna  river,  the  artillery,  supported  by  some  furlough- 
ed  and  dismounted  men,  opened  on  the  advancing  column. 
This  seemed  entirely  unexpected,  some  of  the  Yankees  exclaim 
ing,  "By ,  the  Secesh  have  been  reinforced;  let's  go 

back,"  which  they  did  at  a  double-quick;  nor  did  they  halt 
to  camp  until  they  reached  their  infantry  supports  at  Madison 
Court-house. 

Kilpatrick'a  part  of  the  expedition  had  manifested  a  similar 
ludicrous  cowardice.  He  had  reached  the  outer  line  of  the 
Richmond  fortifications  at  a  little  past  ten  on  the  morning  of 
the  1st  of  March.  A  desultory  fire  was  kept  up  for  some 
hours,  in  which  the  Yankees  who  had  proposed  a  desperate  in 
road  into  Richmond  never  once  got  within  range  of  our  artil 
lery,  and,  satisfied  to  boast  that  they  had  been  within  sight  of 
the  city,  withdrew,  arid  took  up  their  line  of  march  down  the 
Peninsula. 

Unapprised   of  these   dastardly   events,   Dahlgren,   on   the 


240  THE  THIRD  YEAR  OF  THE  WAR. 

night  of  the  1st  of  March,  pursued  his  way  towards  Richmond, 
following  the  Westham  plank-road,  with  some  seven  or  eight 
hundred  horsemen.  An  exhibition  of  cowardice  was  reserved 
for  him,  unequalled  even  by  that  of  Ouster,  or  Kilpatrick. 

All  that  stood  in  the  darkness  of  that  night  between  Dahl- 
gren  and  Richmond,  between  the  ferocious  Yankee  and  the 
revenge  he  had  plotted  to  pour  in  blood  and  fire  upon  the  de 
voted  capital  of  the  Confederacy,  was  a  force  of  local  soldiery, 
composed  of  artisans  from  the  Richmond  Armory,  and  clerks, 
many  of  them  young  boys,  from  the  departments  of  the  gov 
ernment.  Such  was  the  force  that  was  to  give  to  Dahlgren's 
"  braves"  a  lesson  for  their  temerity. 

The  Armory  battalion  was  on  the  enemy's  flank,  and  ap 
pears  to  have  been  surprised.  But  when  the  enemy  came  in 
contact  with  Henly's  battalion  (the  clerks),  the  valorous  cav 
alry  broke  at  the  first  fire.  The  first  volley  of  musketry  seems 
to  have  done  all  the  disaster  that  occurred,  and  to  have  finished 
the  business.  Eleven  of  Dahlgren's  Yankees  were  killed  and 
thirty  or  forty  wounded,  while  the  rest  scattered  in  shameful 
flight. 

After  this  disgraceful  affair,  Dahlgren  seemed  to  be  anxious 
only  for  his  retreat.  He  divided  his  forces  so  as  to  increase 
the  chances  of  escape.  The  force  under  his  immediate  com 
mand  moved  down  the  South  bank  of  the  Pamunkey,  and 
crossed  the  river  at  Dabney's  Ferry.  From  the  ferry  they  pro 
ceeded  by  the  most  direct  route  to  Ayletts  on  the  Mattapony, 
watched  closely  at  every  step  by  scouts  detached  from  Lieu 
tenant  James  Pollard's  company  of  Lee's  Rangers,  then  on 
picket  duty  and  recruiting  service  in  King  William  County, 
the  residence  of  most  of  it  members.  Pollard,  himself,  while 
passing  through  the  streets  of  Richmond,  had  chanced  to  see  at 
a  newspaper  office  a  bulletin  giving  some  account  of  the  retreat 
of  Dahlgren's  party,  and  declaring  that  he  would  make  them 
"pay  toll"  on  their  route,  had  posted  to  intercept  the 
fugitives. 

The  ferry-boat  on  the  Mattapony  having  been  previously  re 
moved,  and  Pollard's  arrangements  for  disputing  the  passage 
of  the  Yankees  when  they  reached  the  King  and  Queen 
side  being  suspected,  they  dashed  across  the  river  as  precip 
itately  as  possible  under  the  fire  of  a  small  squad  of  rangers. 


THE  THIRD  YEAR  OF  THE  WAR.  211 

The  Yankees  had  no  sooner  reached  King  and  Queen 
County  than  they  were  harassed,  both  front  and  rear,  by  the 
Rangers,  showing  fight  as  they  advanced,  until  Pollard  was 
reinforced  by  Captain  Fox  of  the  Fifth  Virginia  Cavalry  and 
some  of  his  men  then  on  furlough  in  the  county,  some  mem 
bers  of  Lieutenant-colonel  Robins'  cavalry,  and  a  few  home 
guards. 

While  Dahlgren,  with  his  party  of  fugitives  constantly  slip 
ping  from  him  by  straggling,  and  with  sinking  spirits,  pursued 
the  road  to  Walkerton,  the  improvised  force  of  Confederates 
kept  pressing  him,  while  a  detachment,  making  a  rapid  circuit, 
got  ahead  of  him,  and  awaited  his  approach  in  the  darkness 
of  the  night.  Seeing  some  figures  ahead  on  the  road,  Dahl- 
gien  rode  towards  them,  requiring  for  his  protection  that 
Captain  Dement,  the  prisoner  he  had  taken  at  Frederick  Hall, 
should  ride  by  his  side.  "  Surrender,"  he  shouted,  to  what  he 
supposed  was  a  few  skulkers,  who  would  instantly  accede  to 
the  command.  "  Fire,"  was  the  reply.  "  Give  'ern  hell,  boys," 
yelled  Pollard ;  and  the  woods  were  lighted  up  with  a  volley 
from  Confederate  muskets,  it  was  enough.  Dahlgren  fell 
dead  from  his  horse,  two  bullets  in  the  head,  two  in  the  body, 
and  one  in  the  hand.  Captain  Dement's  horse  was  shot  under 
him.  The  woods  were  filled  with  fugitive  Yankees,  who  had 
fled  at  the  first  volley,  and  who  might  be  heard  in  the  dark 
ness  of  the  night  imploring  the  Confederates  to  have  the  kind 
ness  to  come  up  and  accept  their  surrender.  The  remnant  of 
Dahlgren's  party  captured  here  in  the  night  was  one  hundred 
and  forty  negroes  and  Yankees. 

On  the  body  of  their  leader  were  found  the  remarkable  doc 
uments  to  which  we  have  referred  :  papers  showing  the  fiend 
ish  purpose  of  his  expectation,  and  revealing  to  the  startled 
sensibilities  of  the  people  of  Richmond,  the  horrors  which  they 
had  narrowly  escaped. 

The  following  address  to  the  oih'cers  and  men  of  the  com 
mand  was  written  on  a  sheet  of  paper  having  in  printed  letters 
on  the  upper  corner,  "  Headquarters  Third  Division,  Cavalry 
Corps, ,  1864:" 

Officers  and  Men : 

You  have  been  selected  from  brigades  and  regiments  as  a  picked  command 
to  attempt  a  desperate  undertaking — an  undertaking  which,  if  successful,  will 

16 


242  THE   THIRD   YEAR   OF   THE   WAR. 

write  your  names  on  the  hearts  of  your  countrymen  in  letters  that  can  never 
be  erased,  and  which  will  cause  the  prayers  of  our  fellow  soldiers  now  confined 
in  loathsome  prisons  to  follow  you  and  yours  wherever  you  may  go. 

We  hope  to  release  the  prisoners  from  Belle  Island  first,  and  having  seen 
them  fairly  started  we  will  cross  the  James  river  into  Richmond,  destroying 
the  bridges  after  us,  and  exhorting  the  released  prisoners  to  destroy  and  burn 
the  hateful  city,  and  do  not  allow  the  rebel  leader  Davis,  and  Ms  traitorous  crew 
to  escape.  The  prisoners  must  render  great  assistance,  as  you  cannot  leave 
your  ranks  too  far,  or  become  too  much  scattered,  or  you  will  be  lost. 

Do  not  allow  any  personal  gain  to  lead  you  off,  which  would  only  bring  you 
to  an  ignominious  death  at  the  hands  of  citizens.  Keep  well  together  and 
obey  orders  strictly,  and  all  will  be  well,  but  on  no  account  scatter  too  far ;  for 
in  union  there  is  strength. 

With  strict  obedience  to  orders,  and  fearlessness  in  the  execution,  you  will  be 
sure  to  succeed. 

We  will  join  the  main  force  on  the  other  side  of  the  city,  or  perhaps  meet 
them  inside. 

Many  of  you  may  fall ;  but  if  there  is  any  man  here  not  willing  to  sacrifice 
his  life  in  such  a  great  and  glorious  undertaking,  or  who  does  not  feel  capable 
of  meeting  the  enemy  in  such  a  desperate  fight  as  will  follow,  let  him  step  out, 
and  he  may  go  hence  to  the  arms  of  his  sweetheart,  and  read  of  the  braves  who 
swept  through  the  city  of  Richmond. 

We  want  no  man  who  cannot  feel  sure  of  success  in  such  a  holy  cause. 

We  will  have  a  desperate  fight ;  but  stand  up  to  it  when  it  does  come,  and 
all  will  be  well. 

Ask  the  blessing  of  the  Almighty,  and  do  not  fear  the  enemy. 

U.  DAHLGKEN,  Colonel  Commanding. 

The  following  special  orders  were  written  on  a  similar  sheet 
of  paper,  and  on  detached  slips,  the  whole  disclosing  the  dia 
bolical  plans  of  the  leaders  of  the  expedition  : 

"  Guides — Pioneers  (with  oakum,  turpentine,  and  torpedoes) — Signal  Officer 
— Quartermaster— Commissary : 

"  Scouts  and  pickets — men  in  rebel  uniform  : 

"  These  will  remain  on  the  north  bank  and  move  down  with  the  force  on  the 
south  bank,  not  getting  ahead  of  them  ;  and  if  the  communication  can  be  kept 
up  without  giving  alarm,  it  must  be  done ;  but  everything  depends  upon  a 
surprise,  and  NO  ONE  must  be  allowed  to  pass  ahead  of  the  column.  Informa 
tion  must  be  gathered  in  regard  to  the  crossings  of  the  river,  so  that  should 
we  be  repulsed  on  the  south  side  we  will  know  where  to  recross  at  the  nearest 
point.  All  mills  must  be  burned,  and  the  canal  destroyed;  and  also  every  thing 
which  can  be  used  by  the  rebels  must  be  destroyed,  including  the  boats  on  the 
river.  Should  a  ferry-boat  be  seized,  and  can  be  worked,  have  it  moved  down. 
Keep  the  force  on  the  south  side  posted  of  any  important  movement  of  the 
enemy,  and,  in  case  of  danger,  some  of  the  scouts  must  swim  the  river  and 
bring  us  information.  As  we  approach  the  city,  the  party  must  take  great  care 
that  they  do  not  get  ahead  of  the  other  party  on  the  south  side,  and  must  con 
ceal  themselves  and  watch  our  movements.  We  will  try  and  secure  the  bridge 


THK  THIRD  YEAR  OF  THE  WAR.  243 

to  the  city  (one  mile  below  Belle  Isle),  and  release  the  prisoners  at  the  same 
time.  If  we  do  not  succeed,  they  must  then  dash  down,  and  we  will  try  and 
carry  the  bridge  from  each  side. 

"When  necessary,  the  men  must  be  filed  through  the  woods  and  along  the 
river  bank.  The  bridges  once  secured,  and  the  prisoners  loose  and  over  the 
river,  the  bridges  will  be  secured  and  the  city  destroyed.  The  men  must  keep 
together  and  well  in  hand,  and  once  in  the  city,  it  must  be  destroyed,  and 
Jeff  Davis  and  Cabinet  killed. 

"  Pioneers  will  go  along  with  combustible  material.  The  officer  must  use 
his  discretion  about  the  time  of  assisting  us.  Horses  and  cattle,  which  we  do 
not  need  immediately,  must  be  shot  rather  than  left.  Every  thing  on  the  canal 
and  elsewhere,  of  service  to  the  rebels,  must  be  destroyed.  As  General  Custer 
may  follow  me,  be  careful  not  to  give  a  false  alarm. 

"  The  signal-officer  must  be  prepared  to  communicate  at  night  by  rockets, 
and  in  other  things  pertaining  to  his  department. 

"  The  Quartermasters  and  Commissaries  must  be  on  the  lookout  for  their  de 
partments,  and  see  that  there  are  no  delays  on  their  account. 

"  The  engineer  officer  will  follow  to  survey  the  road  as  we  pass  over  it,  &c. 

"  The  pioneers  must  be  prepared  to  construct  a  bridge  or  destroy  one.  They 
must  have  plenty  of  oakum  and  turpentine  for  burning,  which  will  be  rolled  in 
soaked  balls  and  given  to  the  men  to  burn  when  we  get  in  the  city.  Torpe 
does  will  only  be  used  by  the  pioneers  for  destroying  the  main  bridges,  &c. 
They  must  be  prepared  to  destroy  railroads.  Men  will  branch  off  to  the  right 
with  a  few  pioneers  and  destroy  the  bridges  and  railroads  south  of  Richmond, 
and  then  join  us  at  the  city.  They  must  be  well  prepared  with  torpedoes,  &c. 
The  line  of  Falling  Creek  is  probably  the  best  to  work  along,  or,  as  they  ap 
proach  the  city,  Goode's  Creek ;  so  that  no  reinforcements  can  come  up  on  any 
cars.  No  one  must  be  allowed  to  pass  ahead,  for  fear  of  communicating  news. 
Rejoin  the  command  with  all  haste,  and,  if  cut  off,  cross  the  river  above  Rich 
mond  and  rejoin  us.  Men  will  stop  at  Bellona  Arsenal  and  totally  destroy  it, 
and  anything  else  but  hospitals ;  then  follow  on  and  rejoin  the  command  at 
Richmond  with  all  haste,  and,  if  cut  off,  cross  the  river  and  rejoin  us.  As 
General  Custer  may  follow  me,  be  careful  and  not  give  a  false  alarm." 

The  exhibition  of  these  papers,  disclosing  a  Yankee  plot  of 
incendiarism  and  murder  that  challenged  comparison  with  the 
atrocities  of  the  darkest  ages,  produced  a  profound  sensation  in 
Richmond,  Our  people,  although  already  familiar  with  out 
rages  of  the  enemy,  were  scarcely  prepared  to  imagine  such 
extremity  of  excess ;  while  these  bloody  papers  were  to  the 
world  an  important  evidence  of  the  spirit  of  Yankee  warfare.* 


*  Yankee  newspapers,  with  persistent  hardihood,  disputed  the  authenticity 
of  these  papers.  The  writer,  whose  relative  was  engaged  in  the  affair,  and  who 
himself  was  familiar  with  all  the  incidents  relating  to  these  papers,  may  assert 
most  positively  that  there  is  not  a  shadow  of  ground  to  question  their  authen 
ticity.  He  saw  the  originals.  In  half  an  hour  after  they  were  found  on  Dahl 


24:4  THE    THIRD    YEAR   OF   THE    WAR. 

It  is  partly  amusing  to  notice  that  flimsy  and  flippant  hypo 
crisy  which,  in  Yankee  newspapers,  declared  that  Dahlgren, 
who  had  come  on  such  an  errand,  when  killed  in  a  fight  with 
our  troops  was  "  assassinated,"  or  which,  through  the  offices  of 
an  alliterative  strong-minded  woman,  the  peculiar  creature  of 
Yankeedom — one  "  Grace  Greenwood" — apotheosized,  through 
public  lectures  to  Yankee  soldiers,  one  of  the  worst  of  their 
kind,  and  proclaimed  him  as  "  the  young  hero  of  the  North." 
The  dramatic  account  of  the  stripping  of  the  body  of  the 
marauder,  and  the  cutting  off  the  joint  of  a  finger  to  get  from 
it  a  diamond  ring,  is,  however  revolting  to  a  tender  humanity, 
nothing  but  an  ordinary  circumstance  in  a  war  where  both 
sides  have  admitted  what  is  indeed  a  deplorable  practice — that 
of  "peeling  "  on  the  battle-field. 

But  there  were  some  acts  of  the  Confederate  authorities  in 
relation  to  the  Dahlgren  affair,  which  deserved  a  severe  cen 
sure,  and  which  were  wholly  indefensible.  Many  persons  in 
the  Confederacy  very  justly  thought  that  Dahlgren's  raiders 
were  not  entitled  to  the  privileges  of  prisoners  of  war,  but 
should  be  turned  over  to  the  State  authorities  as  thieves,  incen 
diaries,  and  felons  in  all  respects.  The  Confederate  authorities, 
from  motives  which  could  only  have  been  fear  of  the  enemy's 
displeasure,  declined  to  accede  to  this  demand.  But  popular 
clamor  was  to  be  appeased ;  and  to  do  so  the  old  game  of 
"retaliation"  was  to  be  played,  and  its  plain  demands  put  off 
by  melodramatic  expedients  honorable  to  tell,  but  in  reality 
amounting  to  nothing. 


gren's  body  they  were  placed  in  the  hands  of  General  FitzHugh  Lee  ;  and  the 
soiled  folds  of  the  paper  were  then  plainly  visible.  The  words  referring  to  the 
murder  of  the  President  and  his  cabinet  were  not  interlined,  but  were  in  the 
regular  context  of  the  manuscript.  The  proof  of  the  authenticity  of  the  papers 
is  clinched  by  the  circumstance  that  there  was  also  found  on  Dahlgren's  body 
a  private  note-book,  which  contained  a  rough  draft  of  the  address  to  his  soldiers, 
and  repetitions  of  some  of  the  memoranda  copied  above.  The  writer  has  care 
fully  examined  this  note-book— a  common  memorandum  pocket-book,  such  as 
might  be  bought  in  New  York  for  fifty  cents — in  which  are  various  notes, 
some  in  ink  and  some  in  pencil ;  the  sketch  of  the  address  is  in  pencil,  very  im 
perfect,  written  as  one  who  labored  in  composition,  crossed  and  recrossed.  It 
does  not  differ  materially  in  context  or  language  from  the  more  precise  com 
position,  except  that  the  injunction  to  murder  the  Confederate  leaders  is  in  the 
rough  draft  made  with  this  additional  emphasis,  "  killed  on  the  spot." 


THE  THIKD  YEAK  OF  THE  WAK.  245 

Dablgren's  body  was  buried  out  of  sight,  with  the  puerile 
mystery  of  a  concealed  grave.  The  Libby  Prison  was  under 
mined,  several  tons  of  powder  put  under  it,  and  the  threat 
made  that  if  any  demonstration  on  Richmond,  such  as  Dahl- 
gren's,  was  ever  again  to  occur,  the  awful  crime,  the  appaling 
barbarity  would  be  committed  of  blowing  into  eternity  the 
hundreds  of  helpless  men  confined  in  a  Confederate  prison. 
"No  one  can  believe  that  such  an  atrocity  was  ever  intended, 
under  any  circumstances,  to  be  executed  by  the  Confederacy, 
or  that  it  was  any  thing  more  than  the  melodrama  by  which 
our  weak  authorities  had  been  accustomed  to  avoid  the  real 
and  substantial  issues  of  "retaliation."  This  was  not  the  first 
instance  in  which  the  Confederacy  had  needlessly  blackened 
its  reputation  by  exaggerated  pretences  of  retaliation,  which 
it  wras  thought  necessary  to  make  very  ferocious  in  their  con 
ception,  in  proportion  as  they  were  to  be  failures  in  execution. 


246  THE  THIRD  YEAR  OF  THE  WAR. 


CHAPTER  XL 

The  Current  of  Confederate  Victories. — THE  RED  RIVER  EXPEDITION. — Banks'  Am 
bitious  Designs. — Condition  of  the  Confederates  West  of  the  Mississippi. — Banks' 
Extensive  Preparations.— A  Gala  Day  at  Vicksburg. — Yankee  Capture  of  Fort  De 
Enssy. — Occupation  of  Alexandria. — Porter's  Warfare  and  Pillage. — Banks'  Con 
tinued  Advance.— Shreveport,  the  Grand  Objective  Point. — Kirby  Smith's  Designs. — 
General  Green's  Cavalry  Fight.— BATTLE  OF  MANSFIELD. — Success  of  the  Confeder 
ates. — BATTLE  OF  PLEASANT  HILL. — The  Heroic  and  Devoted  Charge  of  the  Confeder 
ates. — The  Scene  on  the  Hill. — Banks  Fatally  Defeated. — Price's  Capture  of  Yankee 
Trains. — Grand  Results  of  Kirby  Smith's  Campaign. — Banks  in  Disgrace. — Yankee 
Tenure  of  Louisiana. — FORREST'S  EXPEDITION  INTO  KENTUCKY. — His  Gallant  Assault 
on  Fort  Pillow. — The  Yankee  Story  of  "  Massacre." — Capture  of  Union  City. — Con 
federate  Occupation  of  Paducah. — Chastisement  of  the  Yankees  on  their  own  Theatre 
of  Outrages — CAPTURE  OF  PLYMOUTH,  N.  C. — General  Hoke's  Expedition. — Capture 
of  "Fort  Wessel."— Exploit  of  the  "  Albemarle."— The  Assaults  upon  the  Town.— 
Fruits  of  its  Capture. — The  Yankees  in  North  Carolina. 

THE  current  of  victory  for  the  Confederacy  was  still  to  en 
large.  The  spring  campaign  of  General  Kirby  Smith  in  the 
Trans-Mississippi  was  to  terminate  for  us  in  one  of  the  most 
decisive  and  fruitful  successes  of  the  war.  On  account  of  the 
remoteness  of  the  theatre  of  action  and  its  very  imperfect  com 
munications  with  Richmond,  we  have  now  at  hand  but  scant  ma 
terials  for  composing  the  history  of  these  events,  which  termi 
nated  in  the  overwhelming  defeat  of  Banks,  and  the  complete 
demolition  of  his  extensive  schemes  in  Western  Louisiana 
and  Texas. 


THE   RED   RIVER   EXPEDITION. 

To  understand  the  importance  of  Banks'  great  expedition 
up  the  Red  River,  it  is  necessary  to  review  the  military  situa 
tion  in  the  beginning  of  March.  Sherman  had  returned  to 
Yicksburg  from  his  grand  but  disappointed  expedition  into 
Mississippi,  and  instead  of  directing  his  forces  towards  Mobile, 
the  point  of  the  greatest  concern  to  the  Confederates,  he 


THE  THIRD  YEAR  OF  THE  WAR.  247 

detached  a  portion  of  them  to  General  Banks'  assistance,  who, 
it  appears,  had  predetermined  on  scattering  or  demolishing  the 
Confederate  force  in  West  Louisiana,  operating  against  Texas, 
and  opening  to  Yankee  spoliation  and  theft  one  of  the  richest 
cotton  regions  of  the  South.  A  very  general  impression 
existed  in  the  North  that  the  Confederate  cause  west  of  the 
Mississippi  was  particularly  hopeless.  General  Steele  had  cap 
tured  Little  Rock,  and  was  thought  to  have  control  of  almost 
the  entire  country  north  of  the  Red  river.  General  Banks  had 
captured  Brownsville,  and  occupied  several  points  on  the 
Texas  coast,  with  Yankee  forces.  The  discouragement  of  the 
Confederate  leaders  was  said  to  be  so  complete  that  the  story 
found  believers  among  the  Yankees  that  Ivirby  Smith  had 
determined  to  pay  off  his  army,  furlough  his  men  for  an  indefi 
nite  period,  and  then  retire  with  his  principal  officers  into 
Mexico. 

The  preparations  of  Banks,  however,  showed  that  he  either 
contemplated  a  much  greater  resistance  than  what  vulgar 
opinion  in  the  North  anticipated,  or  that  he  was  determined  to 
insure  success  by  that  exaggeration  of  means  which  timidity 
always  suggests.  The  expedition  had  been  the  occasion  of  a 
complete  change  in  his  plan  of  military  operations  in  the 
Department  of  the  Gulf.  Altogether,  it  was  the  most  import 
ant  military  enterprise  ever  attempted  west  of  the  Mississippi, 
and  the  largest  army  ever  assembled  in  that  section  (amount 
ing,  besides  the  fleet,  to  at  least  forty  thousand  men),  was 
entrusted  with  its  execution. 

About  the  1st  of  March  the  columns  under  General  Franklin 
proceeded  from  New  Orleans  to  Brashear  City,  and  thence 
took  up  the  line  of  march  along  the  Bayou  Teche.  The  forces 
under  General  A.  J.  Smith,  from  the  Department  of  Tennessee, 
comprising  the  brigades  under  Generals  F.  S.  Smith,  Thomas, 
and  Ellet,  embarked  at  Yicksburg  on  the  10th  of  March,  and 
proceeded 'down  to  the  mouth  of  Eed  river,  where  they 
found  a  fleet  of  twenty  gunboats  ready  for  the  ascent.  The 
twenty  transports,  preceded  by  the  twenty  gunboats,  started 
from  the  Mississippi  on  the  10th.  As  for  the  naval  force  of 
the  expedition,  a  Northern  paper  stated  that  a  more  formida 
ble  fleet  was  never  under  a  single  command  than  that  now  on 
the  western  rivers  under  Admiral  Porter. 


THE    THIRD    YEAR   OF   THE   WAR. 

The  day  of  the  embarkation  at  Yicksburg  was  a  gala  one 
for  the  Yankees.  "  The  scene  on  the  Mississippi  river,  oppo 
site  Yicksburg,"  says  a  Yankee  correspondent,  "  was  sublime. 
From  the  deck  of  this  steamer,  the  flagship  of  the  expedition, 
went  up  the  long,  shrill  whistle,  the  signal  for  our  departure, 
which  was  instantly  answered  by  the  immense  fleet,  each 
steamer's  whistle  screaming  a  reply,  '  All  ready,'  in  notes 
ranging  from  C  sharp  to  B  flat.  In  five  minutes  the  gigantic 
flotilla  was  in  motion,  the  variegated  lights  swinging  to  and 
fro  from  the  mastheads,  while  the  crowded  decks  glistened 
with  loyal  bayonets,  and  the  cabin  windows  reflected  a  brilliant 
light  upon  the  rushing  waters.  Add  to  this  picture  the  lively 
music  of  several  brass  bands,  the  cheering  of  the  soldiers,  eager 
for  the  approaching  conflict,  and  their  simple  shelter-tents 
spread  in  miniature  encampments  on  the  upper  decks  of  the 
steamers,  while  from  the  monster  black  chimneys  the  sparks 
fell  in  golden  showers  over  the  whole  scene,  and  perhaps  a 
slight  idea  will  be  conveyed  of  the  romantic  beauty  of  this  rare 
war  spectacle." 

The  imposing  expedition  proceeded  up  the  Red  river  with 
out  serious  opposition  ;  and  its  first  achievement  was  the  cap 
ture,  on  the  14th  of  March,  of  Fort  De  Russy.  The  fort  was 
easily  taken  by  General  Smith's  advance,  as  it  was  garrisoned 
by  only  two  or  three  companies  of  Confederates.  Had  it  been 
fully  manned  it  would  have  been  a  difficult  point  to  capture. 
The  fort  was  intended  for  a  large  force.  It  consisted  of  a  very 
strong  water-battery,  mounting  four  guns,  and  a  bomb-proof 
battery  of  three  guns,  only  two  of  which  were  really  mounted. 
Both  these  batteries  fully  commanded  the  approaches,  and 
were  connected  with  a  strong  fort,  about  a  quarter  of  a  mile  to 
the  rear,  by  a  causeway,  protected  by  high  breastworks,  thus 
enabling  the  men  to  pass  from  the  battery  to  the  fort  in  action 
with  comparative  safety.  The  bomb-proof  was  covered  with 
two  feet  of  solid  timber  and  two  layers  of  railroad  iron  of  the 
T  style,  fitted  into  each  other. 

Porter's  gunboats  were  not  engaged  ;  and  the  garrison  of 
the  fort  missed  the  coveted  opportunity  of  testing  the  power  of 
their  superb  water-battery.  The  Yankees  took  here  two  hun 
dred  and  eighty-three  prisoners  and  several  heavy  guns. 
Among  the  prisoners  taken  was  Lieutenant-colonel  Byrd,  for- 


THE    THIRD    TEAK    OF   THE    WAR.  2i9 

merly  in  command  of  the  fort.     He  was  put  in  double-irons, 
and  sent  to  the  penitentiary  at  Baton  Rouge  ! 

Fort  De  Hussy  having  fallen,  Porter  had  no  difficulty  in 
steaming  up  to  Alexandria,  a  place  of  about  fifteen  hundred 
inhabitants,  and  the  county-seat  of  Rapides  parish.  It  was  sit 
uated  on  the  Red  river,  about  one  hundred  and  fifty  miles 
above  its  confluence  with  the  Mississippi.  The  advance  of 
General  A.  J.  Smith's  forces  in  transports,  and  Admiral 
Porter's  fleet  of  iron-clad  gunboats,  anchored  before  the  red- 
clay  bluffs  of  Alexandria  on  the  evening  of  the  16th  March. 

-  The  Yankees  had  now  penetrated  the  famous  cotton  district 
of  the  Red  river  ;  and  Porter,  who  had  already  obtained  in 
the  South  the  unenviable  title  of  "  the  Thief  of  the  Missis 
sippi,"  took  the  initiative  in  a  system  of  pillage  that  might 
have  disgraced  the  most  ruthless  and  ferocious  banditti. 
Many  of  the  planters  applied  the  torch  to  their  cotton  rather 
than  it  should  fall  into  the  hands  of  the  rapacious  enemy. 
Porter  reported  to  his  Government  that  upwards  of  four  thou 
sand  bales  of  cotton  had  been  confiscated  and  rescued  by  his 
gunboats :  a  boastful  estimate,  much  above  the  truth.  If 
cotton  could  not  be  found,  the  Yankees  had  no  hesitation  in 
making  prizes  of  other  property  ;  and  when  disappointed  of 
plunder,  they  could  at  least  give  vent  to  their  feelings  in  a 
spirit  of  destruction  and  wanton  ferocity. 

Alexandria  was  occupied  without  resistance  ;  and  from  that 
point  Smith  continued  his  advance  towards  Shreveport,  one 
hundred  and  seventy  miles  higher  up  Red  river.  In  the 
meantime,  Franklin  was  making  his  way  with  all  haste  across 
the  country  via  Franklin,  New  Iberia,  and  Opelousas,  with 
the  intention  of  joining  Smith  at  Alexandria ;  but  he  arrived 
at  that  place  too  late  for  the  purpose.  Smith's  forces  had 
already  gone  up  the  river,  anA,  therefore,  in  order  to  consum 
mate  the  junction,  it  was  necessary  for  Franklin  to  move 
towards  Shreveport  over  land.  The  Yankee  army,  now  under 
command  of  General  Banks,  passed  Grand  Ecore,  sixty  miles 
from  Alexandria,  the  fleet  having,  meanwhile,  got  within  one 
hundred  miles  of  Shreveport. 

This  latter  place,  on  the  Louisiana  boundary,  appears  to 
have  been  the  grand  objective  point  of  Banks'  campaign.  The 
Trans-Mississippi  district  might  be  considered  as  having  its 


250  THE  THIED  YEAE  OF  THE  WAK. 

centre  of  supplies  and  resources  at  Shreveport,  and  it  was  an 
obvious  base  of  operations  against  Texas.  Appreciating  its 
importance,  and  with  a  view  of  sustaining  and  uniting  with 
Price,  who  was  falling  back  in  Arkansas,  General  Kirby 
Smith,  in  command  of  the  Confederates,  in  giving  up  Fort  De 
Hussy  and  the  adjoining  country  had  resolved  to  make  a  stand 
to  cover  Shreveport,  and  had  merely  designed  to  draw  Banks 
to  a  decisive  point  of  the  campaign. 

On  the  7th  of  April,  Banks  encountered  a  body  of  Confed 
erate  cavalry,  under  General  Green,  about  two  miles  beyond 
Pleasant  Hill.  A  desultory  light  ensued,  in  which  Green's 
cavalry,  fighting  in  the  strips  of  woods  along  the  road,  severely 
harassed  the  Yankees.  The  appearance  of  this  force  had 
probably  taken  Banks  by  surprise.  He  despatched  a  courier 
to  Franklin  urging  him  to  "  hasten  up,"  and  announcing  that 
he  was  "  surrounded  by  rebel  cavalry." 


BATTLE    OF   MANSFIELD. 

Four  miles  from  the  town  of  Mansfield,  on  the  8th  of  April, 
General  Banks  found  himself  encountered  by  a  considerable 
Confederate  army,  composed  of  forces  under  Kirby  Smith, 
Dick  Taylor,  Mouton,  Green,  and  some  of  Price's  men.  The 
Yankee  cavalry  were  cautiously  advancing,  when  the  Confed 
erates  suddenly  assailed  the  enemy's  front  in  strong  force. 
The  contest  continued  fiercely  for  several  hours,  when  the 
Yankees  were  driven  back  with  great  loss,  and  both  wings  of 
Banks'  army  flanked.  A  retreat  appeared  to  be  inevitable, 
should  the  Confederates  continue  to  assault  the  enemy's  front. 
The  Yankee  artillery  played  furiously  upon  the  Confederate 
lines.  But  they  continued  to  advance  boldly,  our  devoted 
men  evincing  a  desperate  determination  to  conquer  or  perish 
in  the  attempt.  An  order  of  retreat  was  at  last  given  by 
Banks.  But  the  retreating  force  found  the  road  blocked  up 
by  their  trains,  which  had  got  into  confusion.  The  retreat 
soon  became  a  route  and  a  panic  ensued.  The  Confederates 
pushed  on  in  pursuit,  capturing  eighteen  guns,  all  of  General 
Lee's  wagon  trains,  and  driving  the  panic-stricken  mass  of 
fugitive  Yankees  for  ten  miles  to  Pleasant  Hill.  Here 


LT.    GEN.    K  I  R  B  Y    SMITH 


jLii£ra:rel  Tor  ~f^e  Thixtl  -Y7ep;r  nf  tKe  vV 


LIBRARY 

UNIVEKSITY  OF 

CALIFORNIA. 

-=ar 


THE  THIRD  YEAR  OF  THE  WAR.  251 

Franklin,  who  had  at  last  come  up,  opened  his  line  of  battle 
and  allowed  the  latter  to  pass.  The  Yankees  reported  their 
loss  about  fifteen  hundred  killed,  wounded,  and  missing. 
Among  the  Confederates,  General  Mouton  had  fallen  in  the 
action,  his  body  pierced  by  four  balls. 


BATTLE   OF    PLEASANT   HILL. 

The  next  day  Banks  had  his  forces  well  in  hand  ;  during  the 
night  General  A.  J.  Smith  having  arrived  with  fresh  troops. 
The  place  he  had  selected  for  a  decisive  battle  was  a  large  open 
field,  once  cultivated,  but  now  overgrown  with  trees  and 
bushes.  In  the  centre  of  the  field  was  a  slight  elevation,  from 
which  the  name,  Pleasant  Hill,  was  taken  ;  and  a  semicircular 
belt  of  timber  ran  around  the  field  on  the  Shreveport  side. 

The  engagement  of  the  two  armies  was  scarcely  more  than 
skirmishing  until  about  five  o'clock  in  the  afternoon.  One  of 
the  most  thrilling  scenes  of  mortal  contest  was  now  to  take 
place.  The  Confederates  reached  the  open  ground  and  moved 
on  to  the  attack  in  three  lines  of  battle.  The  Yankee  batteries 
and  infantry  opened  with  terrible  effect,  making  great  slaugh 
ter  with  grape  and  canister,  while  the  Confederate  artillery, 
being  in  the  woods  and  in  bad  position,  did  scarcely  any  dam 
age.  The  fighting  was  terrific.  The  Confederates  pressed 
furiously  on.  The  Yankees  were  pushed  back,  Taylor's  bat 
tery  taken,  and  the  enemy's  line  pushed  up  the  hill.  As  the 
second  line  of  Confederates  appeared  on  the  crest  of  the  hill, 
the  death-signal  was  sounded,  and  from  the  long  line  of  can 
non  and  crouching  forms  of  men  there  leaped  a  terrible  and 
destroying  fire.  Thousands  of  rifles  blazed  away,  and  cannon 
loaded  nearly  to  the  muzzles  belched  forth  destruction.  Find 
ing  it  impossible  to  force  the  enemy  further,  the  Confederates 
fought  their  way  slowly  and  steadily  back  to  their  original 
line.  The  enemy  could  not  be  rallied  after  such  proof  of 
valor.  In  vain  General  Smith  ordered  a  charge.  Night  was 
near  at  hand,  and  the  engagement  dwindled  into  desultory 
skirmishing. 

The  loss  of  the  enemy  in  this  engagement  is  not  exactly 
known,  though  probably  much  greater  than  he  reported — two 


252  THE  THIED  YEAR  OF  THE  WAR. 

thousand.  After  the  battle  Banks  fell  back  to  the  line  of  the 
Red  River,  and  took  position  at  Grand  Ecore,  near  Nachitoches. 
Thus  ended  the  fearful  and  bloody  struggle  for  the  control  of 
Western  Louisiana,  and  the  important  destinies  it  involved. 

Some  days  later  there  was  an  exchange  of  fire  between 
Porter's  gunboats  and  a  force  of  Confederate  mounted  infantry 
about  twenty-live  miles  above  Grand  Ecore,  in  which,  un 
happily,  the  brave  General  Green  was  killed  by  the  fragment 
of  a  shell. 

The  Yankees  made  various  pretences  to  conceal  the  extent 
of  their  disaster.  It  was  declared  that  the  redoubtable  Banks 
had  only  fallen  back  for  "  rest  and  rations,"  and  that  Steele 
was  pushing  forward  from  Arkansas  with  fifteen  thousand 
men.  The  fact  was  that  the  latter  commander  had  left  Little 
Hock  with  twelve  thousand  infantry,  and  three  thousand  cav 
alry ;  but  Price,  whom  he  imagined  he  was  driving  helplessly 
before  him,  had  turned  at  Camden,  and  captured  all  his  trains. 
The  Yankee  version  of  this  event  was  that  Steele  had  broken 
through  Price's  lines  and  got  back  to  Little  Rock  to  save  it 
from  Marmaduke  who  was  advancing  upon  it. 

The  results  of  the  campaign  of  Kirby  Smith  were  for  us  the 
most  substantial  ever  achieved  in  the  Trans-Mississippi.  The 
expedition  of  Banks  had  proved  a  failure,  and  nothing  was  left 
for  him  but  to  retreat  to  Alexandria,  after  losing  several  thou 
sand  prisoners,  and  thirty-five  pieces  of  artillery.  The  expedi 
tion  of  Steele  into  Western  Arkansas  had,  as  we  have  seen, 
ended  in  a  complete  disaster.  The  immediate  points  of  our 
victories,  as  summed  up  in  the  official  report  of  General  Kirby 
Smith,  were  eight  thousand  killed  and  wounded,  six  thousand 
prisoners,  thirty-five  pieces  of  artillery,  twelve  hundred  wagons, 
one  gunboat,  and  three  transports.  These  wagons  comprised 
the  whole  of  Steele's  train,  which  had  been  captured  in  Arkan 
sas.  It  was  supposed,  at  one  time,  that  the  portion  of  Por 
ter's  fleet,  above  the  falls  at  Alexandria,  would  have  to  be 
abandoned ;  but  they  were  released  from  their  unpleasant 
position  by  building  a  tree-dam  of  six  hundred  feet  across  the 
river  at  the  lower  falls,  which  enabled  all  the  vessels  to  pass — 
the  back-water  of  the  Mississippi  reaching  Alexandria,  and 
enabled  the  vessels  to  pass  over  all  the  shoals  and  the  obstruc 
tions  planted  by  the  Confederates,  to  a  point  of  safety. 


THE  THIRD  YEAR  OF  THE  WAR.  253 

It  was  late  in  the  month  of  May,  when  Banks  arrived  at 
New  Orleans,  with  the  remnants  of  his  army.  In  moving 
across  the  country,  during  his  retreat  from  Alexandria,  he  left 
the  Red  River  at  Fort  De  Russy,  and  struck  for  Semmesport, 
where  he  crossed  the  Atchafalaya,  and  then  marched  to  Mor- 
ganza,  on  the  Mississippi.  The  complete  failure  of  the  expe 
dition  was  beyond  disguise,  and  was  the  topic  of  severe  criti 
cism  in  the  North.  Although  Banks  was  still  permitted  to 
remain  in  command  of  his  department,  as  were  Rosecrans  and 
Steele,  he  wras  placed  under  the  order  of  General  Canby,  whose 
first  business  was  to  resupply  the  troops  brought  back  by  Gen 
eral  Steele  and  General  Banks  from  the  disastrous  campaign 
of  the  Red  River,  and  to  reorganize  from  these  disjected  mate 
rials  the  army  of  the  Trans-Mississippi. 

Banks'  splendid  empire  west  of  the  Mississippi  was  now 
practically  reduced  to  the  tenure  of  New  Orleans,  the  banks  of 
the  river,  and  a  strip  of  coast.  "If,"  said  a  "loyal"  observer, 
at  New  Orleans,  "our  friends  at  the  North  choose  to  amuse 
themselves  with  the  idea  that  Louisiana  is  reclaimed,  and  again 
loyal,  we  ought  not  to  complain  of  so  cheap  an  entertainment. 
In  truth,  under  the  mild  sway  of  Governor  Hahn,  who  was 
elected  by  several  thousand  majority,  there  is  just  so  much  of 
Louisiana  in  the  Union  as  is  covered  by  our  pickets.  Outside 
of  New  Orleans,  no  Union  officer  or  citizen  can  ride  alone  in 
safety  two  miles  from  the  Mississippi,  except  where  our  organ 
ized  soldiery  move." 

Banks  had  stripped  the  coast  and  frontier  for  his  expedition, 
towards  Shreveport.  He  had  played  a  heavy  stake  in  his 
campaign,  and  he  had  plainly  and  irrevocably  lost  it. 


On  the  other  side  of  the  Mississippi  we  left  Forrest,  the  fa 
mous  eavalry  chief  of  the  West,  driving  back  the  Yankee 
cavalry  that  had  threatened  to  descend  through  Northern  Mis 
sissippi  with  fire  and  sword.  The  unwearied  Confederate  was 
on  the  war  path  again. 

By  long  and  rapid  marches,  Forrest  and  his  men  found  them 
selves,  in  the  month  of  April,  on  the  waters  of  the  Ohio,  sweep* 


THE    THIRD    YEAR    OF    THE    WAR. 

ing  the  enemy  before  them,  wherever  they  could  meet  the  Yan 
kees,  capturing  hundreds  of  prisoners,  and  valuable  and  needed 
stores  in  the  quartermaster  and  ordnance  departments. 

On  the  12th  of  April,  at  Fort  Pillow,  near  Columbus,  Ken 
tucky,  our  brave  men,  in  the  face  of  a  murderous  fire  from  two 
Yankee  gunboats  and  six  pieces  of  artillery,  stormed  the  works, 
and  killed  or  captured  the  entire  garrison,  a  motley  herd  of 
negroes,  traitors,  and  Yankees. 

The  attack  was  made  with  a  part  of  Bell's  and  McCullogh's 
brigades,  under  Brigadier-general  J.  R.  Chalmers.  After  a 
short  fight,  we  drove  the  enemy,  seven  hundred  strong,  into 
the  fort  under  cover  of  their  gunboats,  and  demanded  a  surren 
der,  which  was  denied  by  Major  L.  W.  Booth,  commanding 
the  Yankee  forces.  General  Forrest  then  stormed  the  fort,  and 
after  a  contest  of  thirty  minutes  captured  the  entire  garrison, 
killing  five  hundred,  and  taking  one  hundred  horses  and  a  large 
amount  of  quartermaster's  stores.  The  officers  in  the  fort  were 
all  killed,  including  Major  Booth.  General  Forrest  sustained 
a  loss  of  twenty  killed  and  sixty  wounded.  Over  one  hundred 
citizens,  who  had  lied  to  the  fort  from  conscription,  ran  into 
the  river  and  were  drowned. 

Yankee  newspapers  entitled  this  affair  "  the  Fort  Pillow 
Massacre."  There  is  no  doubt  that,  for  some  moments,  the 
Confederate  officers  lost  control  of  their  men,  who  were  mad 
dened  by  the  sight  of  negro  troops  opposing  them.  It  is  to  be 
remarked,  too,  that  the  Yankees  and  negroes  in  Fort  Pillow 
neglected  to  haul  down  their  flag.  In  truth,  relying  upon  their 
gunboats,  the  Yankee  officers  expected  to  annihilate  our  forces 
after  we  had  entered  the  fortifications.  They  did  not  intend  to 
surrender. 

At  the  first  fire,  after  Forrest's  men  scaled  the  walls,  many 
of  the  negroes  threw  down  their  arms,  and  fell  as  if  they  were 
dead.  They  perished  in  the  pretence,  or  could  only  be  re 
stored  at  the  point  of  the  bayonet.  To  resuscitate  some  of 
them,  more  terrified  than  the  rest,,  they  were  rolled  into  the 
trenches  made  as  receptacles  for  the  fallen.  This  is  the  extent 
of  the  Yankee  story  of  "  burying  negroes  alive." 

The  fall  of  Fort  Pillow  was  soon  followed  by  the  news  of  the 
surrender  of  Union  City,  and  five  hundred  and  fifty  "tories," 
to  a  force  under  command  of  Colonel  Falker,  of  Kentucky.  In 


THE  THIRD  YEAR  OF  THE  WAR.  255 

the  meantime,  Forrest  had  pressed  rapidly  to  Paducah,  which 
place  was  reached  about  ten  o'clock  in  the  morning  of  the 
25th  of  April. 

The  Yankee  force  here  was  two  thousand  infantry,  one  negro 
regiment  and  two  gunboats  of  large  size,  carrying  heavy  siege 
pieces  and  rifled  six  pounders.  Two  siege  pieces  were  mounted 
at  the  fort,  and  a  battery  of  light  artillery  inside.  The  attack 
began  at  once,  not,  however,  with  the  object  of  capturing  or 
routing  the  enemy  here  ;  for  it  was  well  known  that  he  would 
take  shelter  behind  his  fortifications,  which  were  strong  and 
made  impregnable  by  abattis,  ditches  and  spikes ;  but  for  the 
purpose  of  getting  possession  of  the  town,  arid  capturing  or  de 
stroying  the  immense  quantities  of  commissary,  quartermaster, 
ordnance  and  medical  supplies.  The  enemy  was  immediately 
driven  into  and  beyond  the  town,  behind  his  fortifications, 
where  he  was  kept  until  night,  while  the  Confederates  were 
capturing  or  destroying  his  stores. 

Our  forces  retiring  at  nightfall,  the  enemy  immediately  set 
fire  to  two  blocks  of  buildings  behind  which  our  men  had  been 
fighting,  fearing  that  the' attack  would  be  renewed  in  the  morn 
ing.  Nearly  the  whole  town  was  thus  burned  to  ashes,  and 
great  damage  done  to  the  remainder  by  shelling. 

The  results  of  this  expedition  across  the  State  of  Kentucky 
were  especially  gratifying  to  the  Confederacy,  not  only  for  its 
valuable  results  in  captures,  but  for  the  well  merited  chastise 
ment  it  had  inflicted  upon  the  enemy  in  a  quarter  where,  with 
his  convenient  allies  in  white  "tories"  and  negro  banditti,  he 
had  long  practised  with  impunity  the  most  infamous  outrages. 
The  Yankees  liberally  applied  to  this  expedition  the  epithets 
of  "  assassination,"  "  massacre,"  &c. ;  but  these  were  nothing 
more  than  their  usual  terms  for  those  Confederate  successes 
under  which  they  especially  smarted. 

CAPTURE    OF   PLYMOUTH,    NORTH  CAROLINA. 

The  detached  military  events  of  the  latter  part  of  the  winter 
of  1863-64,  and  the  ensuing  spring — all  of  them  successes  for  the 
Confederacy — were  to  be  crowned  with  an  important  victory 
in  North  Carolina. 

After  some  hesitation  by  the  Confederate  authorities,  Briga- 


256  THE  THIRD  YEAR  OF  THE  WAK. 

dier-general  Hoke,  a  young  and  energetic  North  Carolinian, 
was  permitted  to  organize  and  lead  an  expedition  against  Ply 
mouth,  on  the  south  bank  of  the  Roanoke,  about  one  hundred 
and  twenty-five  miles  below  Weldori. 

Our  forces  consisted  of  Ransom's  and  Hoke's  North  Carolina 
brigades,  commanded  by  General  Ransom  and  Colonel  Mercer, 
of  the  Twenty -first  Georgia ;  Kemper's  Virginia  brigade,  com 
manded  by  Colonel  Terry;  Colonel  Bearing's  regiment  of 
cavalry,  and  seven  batteries  of  field  artillery,  under  Lieutenant- 
colonel  Branch  and  Major  Reid — General  Hoke,  as  senior 
brigadier,  commanding  the  entire  force. 

For  nearly  twelve  months  the  Yankees  had  been  busy  with 
pick  and  spade  at  Plymouth.  They  had  thrown  up  a  very 
heavy  fortification  in  front,  extending  from  the  river  to  Conoby 
creek — a  distance  of  a  mile — with  a  deep  ditch  in  front.  At 
short  intervals  along  this  line  were  siege  and  field  guns  in  em 
brasure  ;  and  in  the  centre  was  the  "  Williams  Fort,"  mounting 
six  very  heavy  siege  and  three  field  guns  in  batteries.  This 
fort  occupied  a  commanding  elevation ;  wras  exceedingly 
strong,  with  a  deep  ditch  and  impenetrable  stockade  surround 
ing  it,  enclosed  on  all  sides,  and,  in  case  of  assault,  was  pro 
tected  with  a  heavy  gate  and  drawbridge,  thus  closing  the 
only  entrance  into  the  fort.  Inside  of  this  line  were  three 
other  forts,  mounting  two  to  four  siege  guns  in  barbette,  pro 
tecting  their  left  flank  and  rear.  Immediately  upon  the  river 
was  one  two-hundred-pound  Parrott  rifle  in  position.  On  the 
right  flank,  about  six  hundred  yards  in  advance  of  the  main 
line,  was  "  Fort  Wessell,"  similar  to  Fort  Williams — not  so 
large — and  mounting  two  guns.  One  mile  higher  up  the  river 
was  "  Fort  Warren,"  of  like  construction,  mounting  one  one- 
hundred-pound  Parrott,  and  several  other  guns  of  heavy  cali 
bre,  all  commanding  the  river  and  any  land  attack.  In  addi 
tion  were  four  gunboats  to  co-operate  with  these  forts. 

The  force  in  the  town  and  at  Warren  Neck  consisted  of  the 
Sixteenth  Connecticut,  Eighty-fifth  New  York,  One  Hundred 
and  First  and  One  Hundred  and  Third  Pennsylvania,  two  com 
panies  of  Massachusetts  heavy  artillery,  one  battery  of  light  artil 
lery,  and  two  squadrons  of  cavalry,  the  whole  commanded  by 
Brigadier-general  Wessell,  of  the  old  United  States  army. 

On  the  17th  of  April,  our  forces  were  within  two  miles  of 


THE  THIRD  TEAR  OF  THE  WAR.  257 

Plymouth,  having  marched  through  swamps  and  across  swollen 
creeks  a  distance  of  seventy-five  miles  without  the  knowledge 
of  the  enemy.  Kemper's  brigade,  with  a  battery  of  twelve- 
pounder  Napoleons  and  three  twenty-pounder  Parrotts,  was  de 
tached  to  attack  Warren  Neck,  a  strong  position  on  the  river 
a  mile  above  the  town,  which  the  enemy  thought,  and  we 
feared,  would  effectually  stop  the  passage  of  our  "  ram  " — the 
Albemarle — and  so  deprive  us  of  her  valuable  aid. 

About  sunset,  Bearing  and  Reid,  with  their  rifle  artillery, 
opened  a  brisk  fire  upon  Fort  Warren,  at  fifteen  hundred 
yards,  with  marked  effect,  soon  cutting  down  the  garrison  flag 
staff.  The  gunboats  steamed  up  to  the  assistance  of  the  fort. 
One  was  speedily  sunk  and  another  seriously  damaged. 

Early  the  next  morning,  our  artillery  under  Colonel  Branch 
opened  a  heavy  fire  upon  the  enemy's  works,  which  they  vigor 
ously  responded  to.  That  afternoon  General  Hoke  determined 
to  carry  "  Fort  Wessell "  with  his  and  Kemper's  brigades,  and 
one  battery  under  Major  Reid  ;  he  ordered  Ransom,  with  his 
brigade,  and  Branch,  with  fourteen  pieces  of  artillery,  to  make 
a  heavy  demonstration  simultaneously  with  his  attack. 

Ransom's  brigade,  with  the  8th  North  Carolina,  was  drawn 
up  in  the  woods,  facing  the  works  on  the  Washington,  Lee's 
Mill,  and  Bath  roads.  A  heavy  line  of  skirmishers  was  thrown 
out,  and  advancing  rapidly  with  the  peculiar  gait  of  the  sharp 
shooters,  and  the  yell  with  which  Confederate  troops  go  to  the 
charge,  drove  the  enemy  back  into  his  works,  and  approached 
within  two  hundred  and  fifty  yards  of  the  fort,  earnestly  de 
manding  to  be  led  into  the  place.  Meanwhile,  Pegram's  bat 
tery  dashed  forward  at  a  run,  supported  by  the  infantry,  and 
unlimbering,  delivered  a  furious  fire  upon  the  devoted  place. 
Three  times  the  infantry  advanced,  each  time  nearer,  until 
within  good  charging  distance  ;  but  the  artillery  had  it  all  to 
themselves.  The  movement  was  merely  a  demonstration  to 
call  off  the  enemy's  attention  from  Hoke's  attack  upon  Fort 
Wessel. 

The  enemy  being  now  fully  engaged  on  the  right,  General 
Hoke  made  a  vigorous  attack  upon  Fort  Wessell  with  artillery 
and  infantry— the  enemy  opposing  a  spirited  resistance.  Our 
infantry  again  and  again  charged  the  fort,  the  enemy  hurling 
at.  them  hand-grenades ;  but  the  strong  stockade,  deep  ditch, 

17 


253  THE  THIRD  TEAR  OF  THE  WAR. 

and  high  parapet  prevented  our  men  from  scaling  it.  During 
one  of  these  charges,  the  intrepid  Colonel  Mercer,  command 
ing  Hoke's  brigade,  fell  mortally  wounded  at  the  head  of  his 
command.  Finally,  our  infantry  surrounded  the  fort,  the  ar 
tillery  advanced  to  within  two  hundred  yards  of  it,  and  Colo 
nel  Bearing,  in  behalf  of  General  Hoke,  demanded  a  surrend 
er  of  the  place,  which  was  immediately  complied  with,  and 
fifty-two  prisoners  marched  to  the  rear. 

About  two  o'clock  the  next  morning,  our  iron-clad,  the  Al- 
bemarle,  mounting  two  Brooke  rifled  guns,  and  commanded 
by  Captain  Cooke,  passed  easily  over  the  obstructions  from 
the  high  wrater,  passed  Fort  Warren  without  eliciting  a  shot, 
our  sharpshooters  so  closely  investing  the  fort  that  the  coward 
ly  cannoniers  would  not  man  their  guns.  Steamingjust  below 
Plymouth,  she  met  the  Miami,  commanded  by  Flusser,  and  the 
Southfield,  under  French.  They  were  side  by  side  of  each  other, 
and  connected  by  heavy  iron  cables,  with  the  hope  of  entan 
gling  the  Albemarle  and  running  her  ashore,  or  breaking  her 
propeller,  and  then  boarding  her.  Each  of  these  boats  carried 
eight  guns  of  very  heavy  calibre,  and  were  regarded  equal  to 
any  in  the  waters  of  Eastern  Carolina.  The  gallant  Cooke 
headed  directly  for  the  Southfield,  gave  her  the  contents  of  his 
bow  gun,  and  striking  her  forward  with  his  prow,  she  imme 
diately  began  to  sink,  and  with  such  rapidity,  that  before  the 
Albemarle  could  disengage  herself  she  was  well  nigh  carried 
down,  water  running  in  at  her  ports.  This  occasioning 
some  delay,  the  Miami  fled,  but  not  until  she  was  severely 
punished,  her  commander,  Flusser,  and  many  of  her  crew  be 
ing  killed. 

Having  obtained  possession  of  Fort  Wessell,  General  Hoke 
arranged  his  forces  for  an  assault  upon  the  town,  sending  Ean- 
som  on  the  right  to  make  a  demonstration  or  attack  as  he 
thought  best,  while  Hoke,  with  his  and  Kemper's  brigades, 
would  attack  on  the  left. 

At  early  dawn  on  the  morning  of  the  28th,  our  infantry 
moved  forward,  and  our  artillery,  consisting  of  Blount's,  Mar 
shall's,  and  Lee's  batteries,  under  Colonel  Branch,  dashed  for 
ward  at  a  full  gallop  into  position,  and  opened  immediately 
upon  the  town  and  forts  at  about  twelve  hundred  yards.  The 
enemy  by  this  time  had  concentrated  a  most  terrific  fire  from 


THE  THIRD  YEAR  OF  THE  WAR.  259 

their  siege  and  field  gnus.  Just  at  this  time  General  Hoke 
opened,  with  his  artillery,  a  very  rapid  and  tremendous  fire, 
and  his  infantry  sent  up  yell  after  yell  as  if  charging.  Ransom 
caught  the  sound,  and  rising  in  his  stirrups,  from  the  head  and 
right  of  the  line,  in  a  clear  and  ringing  voice  gave  the  com 
mand,  "  Charge,  boys,  and  the  place  is  yours." 

In  ten  minutes  the  two  outer  forts,  with  eight  guns,  were 
captured,  our  infantry  scaling  their  parapets,  and  the  artillery 
within  one  hundred  and  fifty  yards  of  the  forts,  horses  and 
limbers  blown  up  and  cannoniers  shot  down,  and  yet  those  re 
maining  stood  to  their  guns,  without  shelter,  confident  of  vic 
tory  and  to  avenge  their  dead.  The  whole  command,  officers 
and  men,  infantry  and  artillery,  seemed  enthused  with  the  in 
spiration  of  certain  victory.  Several  hundred  prisoners  were 
captured  in  these  forts,  which  were  immediately  sent  to  the 
rear,  and  now  began  the  contest  for  the  town,  more  than  half 
a  mile  in  length,  the  enemy's  infantry  slowly  retiring,  and 
stubbornly  resisting  our  advance;  Fort  Williams  dealing  out 
grape  and  spherical  case  ;  their  field-pieces,  at  the  further  ex 
tremities  of  the  broad,  straight  streets,  raking  them  with  a 
murderous  fire ;  their  infantry,  in  the  houses  and  cellars,  and 
behind  fences,  delivering  galling  charges  of  minies ;  but  all 
of  no  avail ;  our  men  were  aroused,  confident,  and  irresistible. 
They  pressed  on  steadily,  without  halt  or  hesitation,  tearing 
down  fences,  hedges,  and  every  obstacle  that  they  met,  cap 
turing  the  enemy  at  every  step. 

The  town  was  ours.  But  still  Wessell,  shut  up  in  his  strong 
hold,  Fort  Williams,  refused  to  yield.  A  heavy  cannonade 
was  opened  upon  the  fort,  and  the  garrison  was  galled  by  our 
sharpshooters.  At  last  some  of  the  Confederates,  creeping  for 
ward  through  the  intrenchments,  got  an  enfilading  fire  upon 
them,  which  soon  brought  them  to  terms,  and  hundreds  of 
them  rushed  out  of  the  fort  without  arms  and  surrendered. 
Just  at  this  time  a  shell  burst  directly  on  the  magazine,  and 
when  the  smoke  cleared  away,  the  hated  flag  was  fluttering 
rapidly  down  to  the  ground. 

The  fruits  of  this  capture  were  sixteen  hundred  prisoners, 
twenty -five  pieces  of  artillery,  vast  quantities  of  commissary 
and  quartermaster  supplies,  and  immense  ordnance  stores. 
Our  loss  in  killed  and  wounded  was  about  three  hundred.  We 


260  THE  THIRD  YEAR  OF  THE  WAR. 

had  also  destroyed  two  gunboats,  and  with  all,  had  obtained 
the  strong  position  of  Plymouth,  which  protected  the  whole 
Hoanoke  valley. 

The  Yankees  now  held  but  two  places  on  the  North  Carolina 
coast,  Washington,  at  the  mouth  of  Tar  river,  and  JSTewbern, 
at  the  mouth  of  the  Neuse.  The  latter  was  strongly  gar 
risoned,  but  the  larger  part  of  the  forces  at  Washington  had 
been  moved  up  to  Plymouth.  It  was  supposed  that  General 
Hoke  would  prosecute  his  campaign  against  Newbern ;  but 
his  forces  were  suddenly  to  be  recalled  to  more  imposing 
scenes,  and  to  a  participation  in  the  great  crisis  of  1864  in 
Virginia. 


THE    THIRD    TEAK   OF   THE    WAR. 

LIBRARY 

UNIVERSITY  O 

CALIFORNIA 

CHAPTEE  XII.     Xr-i 

Close  of  the  Third  Year  of  the  War.— Sketch  of  the  Subsequent  Operations  in  Vir 
ginia  and  Georgia. — GRANT'S  "  ON-TO-RICHMOND." — The  Combination  Against  the 
Confederate  Capital. — THK  BATTLES  OF  THE  WILDERNESS. — A  Thrilling  Crisis. — Grant 
on  the  Verge  of  Kout. — His  First  Design  Baffled. — THE  BATTLES  OF  SPOTTSYLVANIA. 
COURT-HOUSE. — Death  of  General  Sedgwick. — THE  CARNAGE  OF  MAY  THE  12TH. — Five 
Battles  in  Six  Days. — Grant's  Obstinacy. — "The  Butcher." — Sheridan's  Expedition. 
—Death  of  General  "Jeb"  Stuart.— Butler's  Operations  on  the  South  Side  of  the 
James. — "  The  Beast"  at.  the  Back-Door  of  Richmond. — He  is  Driven  to  Bermuda 
Hundred  by  Beauregard. — Defeat  of  Sigel  in  the  Valley. — Grant's  Movement  Down 
the  Valley  of  the  Rappahannock. — His  Passage  of  the  Pamunkey. — Re-organization  of 
General  Lee's  Lines. — Grant's  Favorite  Tactics. — Yankee  Exaltation  at  his  Approach 
to  Richmond — Caricatures  of  the  Confederacy. — A  Hasty  Apotheosis. — A  True  The 
ory  of  Grant's  "  Flank  Movements." — His  Occupation  of  McClellan's  Old  Lines. — THK 
BATTLE  OF  THE  CHICKAHOMINY  OR  COLD  HARBOR. — A  Confederate  Victory  in  Ten 
Minutes. — What  Had  Become  of  Yankee  Exultation. — Review  of  the  Rival  Routes  to 
Richmond. — Grant  Crosses  the  James  River. — His  Second  Grand  Combination  Against 
Richmond. — Hunter's  Capture  of  Staunton. — THE  BATTLES  OF  PETERSRURO. — General 
Wise's  Heroic  Address. — Engagement  of  16th  June. — Grand  Assault  of  18th  June. — 
on  "  the  Cockade  City." — A  Decisive  defeat  of  the  Yankees. — Engagement  at  Port 
Walthal  Junction — Sheridan's  Defeat  Near  Gordonsville.  —  Hunter's  Repulse  at 
Lynchburg. — Two  Affairs  on  the  Weldon  Railroad. — Grant's  Second  Combination  a 
Complete  Failure. — Discouragement  of  the  North. — The  Gold  Barometer. — Secretary 
Chase's  Declaration. — SHERMAN'S  "  ON-TO- ATLANTA." — His  Flanking  Movement. — 
Engagement  in  Resaca  Valley. — Johnston's  Retreat  — Engagement  at  New  Hope. — 
Johnston's  Telegram  to  Richmond. — Defeat  of  Sturgis's  Expedition  in  Mississippi. — 
BATTLE  OF  KENESAW  MOUNTAIN. — Sherman's  Successful  Strategy. — The  Confederates 
Fall  Back  to  Atlanta. — THE  BATTLES  OF  ATLANTA. — Hood's  Gallant  Defence. —  .... 
The  Military  Situation  in  July,  1864. — Grant's  Failure. — His  Consumption  of  Troops. 
— Review  of  Yankee  Atrocities  in  the  Summer  Campaign  of  1864. — Sherman's  Char 
acter. — His  Letter  on  "  Wild  Beasts." — His  War  on  Factory  Girls.— Sufferings  of 
Confederate  Women  and  Children. — Ravages  in  Georgia. — Hunter's  Vandalism  in 
Virginia.— "  The  Avengers  of  Fort  Pillow."— Sturgis  and  his  Demons.— The  Spirit  of 
the  Confederates. —  .  .  .  Some  Words  on  "  Peace  Negotiations." — A  Piratical  Prop 
osition  and  an  Infamous  Bribe. — The  Heroic  Choice  of  the  Confederates. 

THE  third  year  of  the  war  closes  properly  at  the  month  of 
May,  according  to  our  arrangement  of  dates  in  preceding  vol 
umes.  But  on  account  of  the  magnitude  of  what  is  closely 
subsequent,  it  is  thought  advisable  to  give  a  summary  and  very 
general  SKETCH  of  the  material  events  of  the  enemy's  two  grand 
campaigns  of  the  summer  of  1864 — the  parallel  operations  of 
Grant  and  Sherman  in  Virginia  and  in  Georgia ; — at  least,  so 


262  THE  THIRD  YEAR  OF  THE  WAR. 

far  as  to  bring  the  reader  to  a  stand-point  of  intelligent  obser 
vation,  with  reference  to  questions  of  peace  and  negotiation 
which  were  agitating  the  public  mind  at  the  time  these  pages 
were  committed  to  the  press.  We  shall  follow  their  campaigns 
only  to  what  appear  to  be  their  decisive  stages  in  June  and 
July.  The  period  we  shall  thus  rapidly  traverse  we  hope  to 
go  over  in  another  volume  with  a  more  perspicuous  narrative, 
and  certainly  with  much  more  abundant  detail. 


General  Ulysses  S.  Grant  was  now  to  answer  the  eager  ex 
pectation  of  the  public  by  a  campaign  of  unrivalled  importance 
in  Virginia.  He  had  hitherto  been  known  in  the  North  as  the 
great  General  of  the  West,  and  the  Yankee  newspapers  had 
entitled  him  the  hero  of  Fort  Donelson,  Shiloh,  and  Vicks- 
burg.  His  elevation  had  been  rapid.  Four  years  ago  the 
man  who  commanded  all  the  armies  of  the  North  had  been  a 
tanner,  and  at  the  beginning  of  the  war  had  been  accidentally 
selected  to  lead  a  regiment  of  raw  recruits. 

From  the  moment  of  receiving  his  commission  as  Lieutenant- 
General,  Grant  had  transferred  his  personal  presence  to  the 
Army  of  the  Potomac,  leaving  Sherman  as  his  vicegerent  to 
carry  out  the  Western  campaign.  Warren,  Sedgwick,  and 
Hancock,  were  made  the  corps  commanders  of  this  army,  and 
Burnside  was  given  a  separate  army  corps.  Butler  at  Fortress 
Monroe  was  reinforced  by  the  Tenth  corps  from  Charleston 
under  Gilmore,  and  the  Eighteenth  from  the  West,  under 
"  Baldy ''  Smith.  To  the  infamous  hero  of  New  Orleans  was 
allotted  the  task  of  cutting  off  the  city  of  Richmond  from  its 
southern  lines  of  communication  ;  while  Sigel  operating  in  the 
Shenandoah  Yalley  was  to  cut  the  railroad  which  by  way  01 
Gordonsville  connected  Lee's  army  with  his  principal  base  of 
supplies  at  Lynchburg. 

Thus  were  the  preparations  completed  for  the  most  momen 
tous  campaign  in  American  history.  On  Wednesday,  May  4, 
just  eight  weeks  from  the  day  Grant  received  his  commis 
sion,  his  two  grand  columns  were  ready  to  move — the  one 


THE  THIRD  YEAR  OF  THE  WAK.  263 

well  in  Land  on  the  north  bank  of  the  Rapidan,  seventy  miles 
north  of  Richmond,  and  the  other  at  Fortress  Monroe,  one 
day's  sail  from  Richmond  on  the  James. 


THE   BATTLES    OF   THE    WILDERNESS. 

At  dawn  on  the  5th  of  May,  the  Army  of  the  Potomac, 
closely  succeeded  by  that  of  Bnrnside,  had  crossed  the  Rapi- 
dan  river  ;  the  Second  corps  at  Ely's,  the  Fifth  and  Sixth  corps 
at  Germania  ford.  Having  crossed  the  river,  the  first  demon 
stration  of  the  enemy  was  an  attempt  to  turn  the  right  flank 
of  Lee's  army,  between  the  Orange  Court-house  pike  and  the 
river.  The  assault  was  sustained  by  Heth  and  Wilcox's  di 
visions  of  the  Confederate  Army,  during  the  entire  day ;  and 
that  it  was  successfully  sustained  even  the  Northern  accounts 
do  not  hesitate  to  admit.  "No  cheer  of  victory,"  says  a  Nor 
thern  correspondent,"  swelled  through  the  Wilderness  that 
night." 

During  the  day  Hancock,  Second  corps,  had  come  up,  and 
the  Federal  forces  were  concentrated.  On  the  morning  of  the 
6th  their  lines  were  consolidated  and  freshly  posted  ;  the  three 
corps  sustaining  their  respective  positions — Warren  in  the 
centre,  Sedgwick  on  the  right,  and  Hancock  on  the  left. 

The  attack  was  made  by  the  Confederates ;  Hill  and  Long- 
street's  corps  attacking  both  of  Hancock's  flanks  with  such 
fury,  that  the  whole  line  of  command  thus  assaulted  is  broken 
in  several  places.  The  effort,  however,  of  the  Confederates  to 
pierce  the  enemy's  centre  is  stayed,  the  Yankees  having  secured 
their  line  of  battle  behind  their  entrenchments. 

But  with  the  expiration  of  the  day  was  to  occur  a  thrilling 
and  critical  conjuncture.  Just  at  dusk  (the  Confederates'  fa 
vorite  hour  of  battle)  a  column  of  Lee's  army  attacked  the 
enemy's  left,  captured  Seymour  and  a  large  portion  of  his  bri 
gade,  and  excited  a  panic  which  put  Grant's  whole  army  on 
the  verge  of  irretrievable  rout.  Unfortunately,  the  Confed 
erates  had  no  idea  of  the  extent  of  their  success,  and  could  not 
imagine  how  fraught  with  vital  issue  were  those  few  moments 
of  encounter.  The  Yankee  supply  trains  were  thought  to  be 
immediately  threatened,  and  artillery  was  posted  to  bear  upon 


264:  THE   THIRD    YEAR    OF    THE    WAR. 

the  Confederate  advance  in  that  direction.  Bat  the  Confed 
erates  did  not  press  their  advantage.  As  it  was,  Generals 
Shaler  and  Seymour,  with  the  greater  part  of  their  commands, 
were  taken  prisoners. 

Such  had  been  the  two  days'  battle  of  the  "Wilderness :  a 
marked  success  for  the  Cpnfederates,  disputed  by  the  Northern 
newspapers,  of  course,  but  manifest  in  the  face  of  the  facts. 
The  enemy  confessed  to  a  loss  of  twelve  thousand.  The  im 
mediate  consequence  of  these  engagements  was,  that  Grant 
being  clearly  outgeneralled  in  his  first  design  of  reaching  Lee's 
rear  and  compelling  him  to  fight  a  battle  with  his  communica 
tions  cut  off,  which  would  be  decisive  of  the  campaign,  was 
forced  to  change  his  plans,  and  with  it  his  position  ;  falling 
back  to  his  entrenched  line,  between  the  Wilderness  and  Trigg's 
Mill,  nearly  coincident  with  the  Brock  road,  leading  from  the 
Wilderness  to  Spottsylvania  Court-house. 

On  the  7th,  with  some  desultory  fighting,  Grant  continued 
his  movement  towards  Fredericksburg,  with  the  evident  view 
of  attempting  the  Fredericksburg  road  to  Richmond.  It  was 
in  consequence  of  this  change  of  front  that  General  Lee  took 
up  a  new  line  on  the  Po.  It  will  amuse  the  candid  reader  to 
find  how  this  movement  was  interpreted  by  the  mendacious 
press  of  the  North ;  for,  in  the  newspapers  of  New  York  and 
Boston  it  was  entitled,  in  flaming  capitals,  "  A  Waterloo  De 
feat  of  the  Confederates,"  "  The  Eetreat  of  Lee  to  Richmond," 
&c.  For  a  few  days  the  North  was  vocal  with  exultation,  and 
for  the  hundredth  time  it  had  the  Rebellion  "  in  a  corner,"  to 
be  conveniently  strangled.  But  this  imagination  of  easy 
conquest  was  to  be  dissipated  as  the  many  that  had  pre 
ceded  it. 


THE   BATTLES    OF    SPOTTSYLVANIA   COURT-HOUSE. 

On  the  8th  of  May  two  engagements  were  fought  at  Spott 
sylvania  Court-house,  between  Longstreet's  corps,  under  An 
derson  (General  Longstreet  having  been  wounded  in  the  battle 
of  the  6th)  and  the  Fifth  corps,  under  Warren,  supported  by 
cavalry.  The  enemy  was  repulsed,  with  heavy  loss,  in  both 
instances. 


THE  THIRD  YEAR  OF  THE  WAR.  265 

On  the  9th,  which  was  marked  by  some  skirmishing,  Gen 
eral  John  Sedgwick,  one  of  the  most  valuable  corps  command 
ers  in  the  Yankee  army,  was  killed,  probably  by  a  stray  bullet. 
He  had  just  been  bantering  his  men  about  dodging  and  duck 
ing  their  heads  at  the  whistle  of  Confederate  bullets  in  the  dis 
tance.  "  Why,"  said  he,  "  they  couldn't  hit  an  elephant  at  this 
distance."  The  next  moment  a  ball  entered  his  face,  just 
below  the  left  eye,  and  pierced  his  brain,  causing  instant 
death. 

On  Thursday,  the  12th  of  May,  occurred  what  may  be 
entitled  as  the  great  battle  of  Spottsylvania.  Court-house. 
The  enemy  had  planned  an  attack  on  what  was  supposed  to  be 
a  vital  section  of  the  Confederates,  a  salient  angle  of  earth 
works  held  by  Johnson's  division  of  Swell's  corps.  The  storm 
ing  column  advanced  silently,  and  without  firing  a  shot,  up  to 
the  angles  of  the  breastworks,  over  which  they  rushed,  taking 
the  forces  within  in  flank,  surrounding  them,  capturing  nearly 
the  entire  division  of  Johnson's,  with  its  commander,  and  also 
a  brigade  or  two  of  other  troops,  Brigadier-general  George  H. 
Stuart  in  command. 

But  the  surprise  was  only  momentary.  For  long  hours  a 
battle  raged  over  those  intrenchments,  the  intense  fury,  hero 
ism,  and  horror  of  which  it  is  impossible  to  describe.  From 
dawn  to  dusk  the  roar  of  guns  was  ceaseless ;  a  tempest  of 
shell  shrieked  through  the  forest  and  ploughed  the  field. 
Ewell's  corps  held  the  critical  angle  with  a  courage  that  noth 
ing  could  subdue.  General  Hill  moved  down  from  the  right, 
joined  Ewell,  and  threw  his  divisions  into  the -struggle.  Long- 
street  came  on  from  the  extreme  left  of  the  Confederate  line. 
Column  after  column  of  the  enemy  was  hewn  down,  or 
repulsed  and  sent  back  like  a  broken  wave.  At  all  points  the 
enemy  was  repulsed  with  enormous  loss.  The  ground  in  front 
of  the  Confederate  lines  was  piled  with  his  slain. 

The  sixth  day  of  heavy  fighting  had  been  ended.  "  It 
would,"  says  an  intelligent  critic  of  this  period,  "  not  be  im 
possible  to  match  the  results  of  any  one  day's  battle  with 
stories  from  the  wars  of  the  old  world  ;  but  never,  we  should 
think,  in  the  history  of  man  were  five  such  battles  as  these 
compressed  into  six  days."  Grant  had  been  foiled ;  but  his 
obstinacy  was  apparently  untouched,  and  the  fierce  and  brutal 


266  THE  THIRD  YEAR  OF  THE  WAR. 

consumption  of  human  life,  another  element  of  his  generalship, 
and  which  had  already  obtained  for  him  with  his  soldiers  the 
soubriquet  of  "  the  butcher,"  was  still  to  continue.  He  tele 
graphed  to  Washington :  "  I  propose  to  fight  it  out  on  this 
line,  if  it  takes  all  summer." 

But  we  must  turn  for  a  few  moments  from  this  dominant 
field  of  action  and  interest  to  notice  other  movements,  which 
were  parts  of  Grant's  combination,  and  of  the  great  military 
drama  in  Virginia. 

While  Grant  was  engaged  on  the  Rapidan,  a  cavalry  expe 
dition  of  the  enemy,  commanded  by  General  Sheridan,  moved 
around  Lee's  right  flank  to  the  North  Anna  river ;  committed 
some  damage  at  Beaver  Dam ;  moved  thence  to  the  South 
Anna  and  Ashland  station,  where  the  railroad  was  destroyed  ; 
and  finally  found  its  way  to  the  James  at  Turkey  Island, 
where  it  joined  the  forces  of  Butler.  The  damage  inflicted  by 
this  raid  was  not  very  considerable  ;  but  it  was  the  occasion  of 
a  severe  fight,  on  the  10th  May,  at  Yellow  Tavern,  on  the  road 
to  Richmond,  where  Sheridan  encountered  a  Confederate  cav 
alry  force,  in  which  engagement  was  lost  the  valuable  life  of 
General  J.  E.  B.  Stuart,  the  brilliant  cavalry  commander,  who 
had  so  long  made  Virginia  the  theatre  of  his  daring  and  chiv- 
alric  exploits. 

The  column  of  Butler,  the  important  correspondent  to 
Grant's  movement,  intended  to  operate  against  Richmond  on 
the  south  side,  had  raised  the  hopes  of  the  North  merely  to 
dash  them  by  a  failure  decisive  in  its  character,  and  ridiculous 
in  all  its  circumstances.  On  the  5th  of  May,  Butler  proceeded 
with  his  fleet  of  gunboats  and  transports,  and  the  Tenth  and 
Eighteenth  army  corps,  up  the  James  river,  landing  at  Wil 
son's  Wharf  a  regiment  of  Wild's  negro  troops,  and  two 
brigades  of  the  same  color  at  Fort  Powhatan  ;  thence  up  to 
City  Point,  where  Hinks'  division  was  landed  ;  and  at  Ber 
muda  Hundred,  just  below  the  mouth  of  the  Appornattox,  the 
entire  army  was  disembarked. 

On  the  7th,  five  brigades,  under  General  Brooks,  struck  for 
the  Petersburg  and  Richmond  Railroad,  and  succeeded  in 
destroying  a  bridge  seven  miles  north  of  Petersburg.  In  the 
mean  time,  Butler,  after  intrenching  himself,  closed  about  the 
defences  of  Druiy'B  Bluff.  The  Yankee  general  seemed  conn- 


THE  THIRD  YEAR  OF  THE  WAR.  267 

dent  that  he  could,  by  a  little  fighting,  in  conjunction  with  the 
powerful  flotilla  upon  the  James,  easily  overcome  the  main 
barrier  to  his  approach  to  the  rear  of  the  Confederate  capital, 
presented  in  the  defences  of  Drury's  Bluff.  It  was  already 
announced  to  the  credulous  public  of  the  North  that  Butler 
had  cut  Beauregard's  army  in  twain  ;  that  he  had  carried  two 
lines  of  the  defences  of  Drury's  Bluff;  and  that  he  held  the 
keys  to  the  back-door  of  Richmond. 

On  Monday,  the  16th  of  May,  General  Beauregard  fell  upon 
the  insolent  enemy  in  a  fog,  drove  Butler  from  his  advanced 
positions  back  to  his  original  earthworks,  and  inflicted  upon  him 
a  loss  of  five  thousand  men  in  killed,  wounded,  and  captured. 
He  had  fallen  upon  the  right  of  the  Yankee  line  of  battle  with 
the  force  of  an  avalanche,  completely  crushing  it  backward 
and  turning  Butler's  flank.  The  action  was  decisive.  The 
day's  operations  resulted  in  Butler's  entire  army  being  ordered 
to  return  from  its  advanced  position,  within  ten  miles  of  Rich 
mond,  to  the  line  of  defence  known  as  Bermuda  Hundred,  be 
tween  the  James  and  Appomattox  rivers. 

While  Butler  had  thus  come  to  grief,  the  failure  of  Sigel, 
who  threatened  the  valley  of  Virginia,  was  no  less  complete. 
On  the  15th  his  column  was  encountered  near  Newmarket  by 
General  Breckin ridge,  who  drove  it  across  the  Shenandoah, 
captured  six  pieces  of  artillery  and  nearly  one  thousand  stand 
of  small  arms,  and  inflicted  upon  it  a  heavy  loss;  Sigel  aban 
doning  his  hospitals  and  destroying  the  larger  portion  of  his 
train. 

We  left  Grant  defeated  in  the  action  of  the  12th  in  front  of 
Spottsylvania  Court-house.  On  the  14th,  he  moved  his  lines 
by  his  left  flank,  taking  position  nearer  the  Richmond  and 
Fredericksburg  railroad.  On  the  18th  he  attempted  an  assault 
on  Swell's  line,  which  was  easily  repulsed.  It  was  admitted  by 
the  enemy  that  the  object  of  this  attack  was  to  turn  Lee's  left 
flank,  and  that  their  line  got  no  further  than  the  abattis,  when 
it  was  "ordered"  back  to  its  original  position. 

A  new  movement  was  now  undertaken  by  Grant :  to  pass 
his  army  from  the  line  of  the  Po,  down  the  valley  of  the  Rap- 
pahannock.  It  thus  became  necessary  for  General  Lee  to  evac 
uate  his  strong  position  on  the  line  of  the  Po ;  and  by  an  ad 
mirable  movement  he  had  taken  a  new  position  between  the 


268  THE  THIRD  YEAR  OF  THE  WAR.  . 

North  and  South  Anna,  before  Grant's  army  had  arrived  at  the 
former  stream.  Having  cut  loose  from  Fredericksbnrg  as  a 
base  (and  established  depots  on  the  Lower  Rappahannock),  on 
the  21st  Grant's  forces  occupied  Milford  Station  and  Bowling 
Green,  and  were  moving  on  the  well  known  high  roads  to 
Richmond.  But  they  were  again  intercepted  ;  for  Lee  had 
planted  himself  between  Grant  and  Richmond,  near  Hanover 
Junction. 

On  the  23d,  and  on  the  25th,  Grant  made  attempts  on  the 
Confederate  lines,  which  were  repulsed,  and  left  him  to  the 
last  alternative.  Another  flanking  operation  remained  for 
him,  by  which  he  swung  his  army  from  the  North  Anna 
around  and  across  the  Pamunkey.  On  the  27th,  Hanovertown 
was  reported  to  be  occupied  by  the  Yankee  advance  under 
General  Sheridan ;  and  on  the  28th  Grant's  entire  army  was 
across  the  Pamunkey. 

In  the  mean  time,  General  Lee  also  reformed  his  line  of  bat 
tle,  north  and  south,  directly  in  front  of  the  Virginia  Central 
railroad,  and  extending  from  Atlee's  Station,  south,  to  Shady 
Grove,  ten  miles  north  of  Richmond.  In  this  position  he  cov 
ered  both  the  Virginia  Central  and  the  Fredericksburg  and 
Richmond  railroads,  as  well  as  all  the  roads  leading  to  Rich 
mond,  west  of,  and  including  the  Mechanicsville  pike. 

The  favorite  tactics  of  Grant  appear  to  have  been  to  devel- 
ope  the  left  flank  ;  and  by  this  characteristic  maneuver,  he 
moved  down  the  Hanover  Court-house  road,  and  on  the  first 
day  of  June  took  a  position  near  Cold  Harbor. 

Grant  was  now  within  a  few  miles  of  Richmond.  The  vul 
gar  mind  of  the  North  readily  seized  upon  the  cheap  circum 
stance  of  his  proximity  in  miles  to  the  Confederate  capital, 
and  exclaimed  its  triumph.  The  capture  of  Richmond  was 
discounted  as  an  event  of  the  next  week.  The,  Yankee  periodi 
cals  were  adorned  with  all  those  illustrations  which  brutal 
triumph  could  suggest ;  Grant  drubbing  Lee  across  his  knee  ; 
the  genius  of  Yankee  liberty  holding  aloft  an  impersonation  of 
the  Southern  Confederacy  by  the  seat  of  the  breeches,  marked 
"  Richmond ;"  Jefferson  Davis  playing  his  last  card,  ornament 
ed  with  a  crown  of  death's  heads,  and  with  his  legs  well  girt 
with  snakes ;  and  a  hundred  other  caricatures  alike  character 
istic  of  the  vulgar  thought  and  fiendish  temper  of  the  Yankee. 


THE  THIRD  YEAR  OF  THE  WAR.  269 

To  such  foolish  extremity  did  this  premature  celebration  go, 
that  a  meeting  was  called  in  New  York  to  render  the  thanks 
of  the  nation  to  Grant,  and  twenty-^ ve  thousand  persons  com 
pleted  the  hasty  apotheosis. 

But  for  the  candid  and  intelligent,  the  situation  of  Grant  was 
one  of  sinister  import  to  him,  implied  much  of  disaster,  and 
was  actually  a  consequence  of  his  repeated  disappointments. 
The  true  theory  of  it  was  defeat,  not  victory.  He  did  nothing 
more  than  hold  the  same  ground  as  that  occupied  by  General 
McClellan  in  his  first  peninsular  campaign.  This  position,  had 
he  come  by  that  point,  a  day's  sail  from  Washington,  he  could 
have  occupied  without  the  loss  of  a  single  man.  But  he  had 
occupied  it  by  a  devious  route  ;  with  a  loss  variously  estimated 
at  from  sixty  to  ninety  thousand  men  ;  with  the  consumption 
of  most  of  his  veteran  troops,  whom  he  had  put  in  front ;  with 
the  disconcert  and  failure  of  those  parts  of  the  drama  which 
Butler  and  Sigel  were  to  enact ;  and  with  that  demoralization 
which  must  unavoidably  obtain  in  an  army  put  to  the  test  of 
repeated  defeats  and  forced  marches. 

"What  was  represented  by  the  enemy  as  the  retreat  of  Gen 
eral  Lee's  army  to  Richmond,  was  simply  its  movement  from 
a  position  which  its  adversary  had  abandoned,  to  place  itself 
full  before  him  across  the  new  road  on  which  he  had  deter 
mined  to  travel.  In  this  sense,  it  was  Grant  who  was  pursued. 
He  had  set  out  to  accomplish  Mr.  Lincoln's  plan  of  an  overland 
march  upon  Richmond.  Mr.  Lincoln's  scheme  as  detailed  by 
himself,  in  his  famous  letter  to  General  McClellan,  was  to 
march  by  the  way  of  the  Manassas  railroad.  The  first  move 
ment  of  General  Grant  was  to  give  up  that  route,  and  fall  back 
upon  the  line  by  which  Generals  Burnside  and  Hooker  at 
tempted  to  reach  the  Confederate  capital — that  is,  the  Freder- 
icksburg  and  Richmond  line.  But,  repulsed  at  Spottsylvania, 
this  route  proved  untenable,  and  General  Grant  was  forced 
east  and  south,  and  adopted  a  new  base  at  Port  Royal  and 
Tappahannock,  on  the  Rappahannock  river,  which  conformed 
in  a  measure  to  General  McClellan's  first  plan  of  a  march  upon 
Richmond  by  way  of  Urbana.  The  next  change  Grant  was 
compelled  to  make  was,  after  finding  how  strong  the  Confed 
erates  were,  as  posted  on  the  South  Anna,  to  cross  the  Pamun- 
key  and  make  his  base  at  the  White  House,  bearing  thereafter 


270  THE  THIRD  YEAR  OF  THE  WAB. 

still  further  east  and  south  to  the  precise  ground  of  McClellan's 
operations. 

The  significance  of  all  these  movements  was,  that  Grant  had 
utterly  failed  in  his  design  of  defeating  Lee's  army  far  from  its 
base,  and  pushing  the  fragments  before  him  down  to  Rich 
mond,  and  had  been  forced  to  cover  up  his  failure  by  adopting 
the  derided  scheme  of  McClellan.  The  event  of  the  12th  of 
May  at  Spottsylvania  Court-house,  had  settled  the  question 
whether  he  could  beat  Lee  in  the  field  and  put  him  in  a  dis 
astrous  retreat.  Unable  to  remove  the  obstacle  on  the  thresh 
old  of  his  proposed  campaign,  nothing  was  left  but  to  abandon 
it.  Grant  makes  his  way  down  the  valley  of  the  Rappahan- 
nock ;  turns  aside  to  Hanover  Junction,  to  find  a  repetition  of 
Spottsylvania  Court-house ;  deflects  to  the  headwaters  of  the 
York ;  and  at  last,  by  a  monstrous  circuit,  reaches  a  point 
where  he  might  have  landed  on  the  1st  of  May,  without  loss 
or  opposition.  We  may  appreciate  the  amount  of  gaseous  non 
sense  and  truculent  blackguardism  of  Yankee  journals,  when 
we  find  them  declaring  that  these  movements  were  a  footrace 
for  Richmond,  that  Grant  was  across  the  last  ditch,  and  that 
the  end  of  the  rebellion  was  immediately  at  hand. 


THE   BATTLE   OF   THE   CHICKAHOMINY,    OR   COLD   HARBOR. 

But  we  must  return  to  the  events  on  the  Richmond  lines. 
The  position  occupied  by  Grant  on  Wednesday,  1st  of  June, 
had  been  obtained  after  some  fighting,  and  by  the  enemy's 
own  admission  had  cost  him  two  thousand  men  in  killed  and 
wounded.  An  important  and  critical  struggle  was  now  to 
ensue.  Grant  had  secured  a  position,  the  importance  of  which 
was  that  it  was  the  point  of  convergence  of  all  the  roads,  radi 
ating  whether  to  Richmond — his  objective  point,  or  to  White 
House — his  base  of  supplies.  He  was  now  to  essay  the  pas 
sage  of  the  Chickahominy,  and  we  were  to  have  another  deci 
sive  battle  of  Cold  Harbor. 

There  is  good  evidence  that  Grant's  intention  was  to  make 
it  the  decisive  battle  of  the  campaign.  The  movements  of  the 
preceding  days,  culminating  in  the  possession  of  Cold  Harbor 
— an  important  strategic  point — had  drawn  the  enemy's  lines 


THE  THIRD  YEAR  OF  THE  WAR.  271 

close  in  front  of  the  Chickahominy,  and  reduced  the  military 
problem  to  the  forcing  of  the  passage  of  that  river — a  problem 
which,  if  solved  in  Grant's  favor,  would  decide  whether  Rich 
mond  could  be  carried  by  a  coup  de  main,  if  a  decisive  victory 
should  attend  his  arms,  or,  whether  he  should  betake  himself 
to  siege  operations  or  some  other  recourse. 

Early  on  the  morning  of  Friday,  June  3d,  the  assault  was 
made,  Hancock  commanding  the  left  of  the  Yankee  line  of 
battle,  and  leading  the  attack.  The  first  Confederate  line  was 
held  by  Breckinridge's  troops,  and  was  carried.  The  reverse 
was  but  momentary,  for  the  troops  of  Millegan's  brigade  and 
the  Maryland  battalion,  soon  dashed  forward,  to  retrieve  the 
honors  which  the  Yankees  had  snatched. 

On  every  part  of  the  line  the  enemy  was  repulsed  by  the 
quick  and  decisive  blows  of  the  Confederates.  Hancock's 
corps,  the  only  portion  of  the  Yankee  army  that  had  come  in 
contact  with  the  Confederate  works,  had  been  hurled  back  in 
a  storm  of  fire ;  the  Sixth  corps  had  not  been  able  to  get  up 
farther  than  within  two  hundred  and  fifty  yards  of  the  main 
works ;  while  Warren  and  Burnside,  on  the  enemy's  right  and 
right  centre,  were  staggered  on  the  lines  of  our  rifle  pits.  The 
decisive  work  of  the  day  was  done  in  ten  minutes.  Never 
were  there  such  signal  strokes  of  valor ;  such  despatch  of  vic 
tory.  It  was  stated  in  the  accounts  of  the  Confederates  that 
fourteen  distinct  assaults  of  the  enemy  were  repulsed,  and  that 
his  loss  was  from  six  to  seven  thousand.  No  wonder  that  the 
insolent  assurance  of  the  capture  of  Richmond  was  displaced 
in  the  Yankee  newspapers  by  the  ominous  calculation  that 
Grant  could  not  afford  many  such  experiments  on  the  en 
trenched  line  of  the  Chickahominy,  and  would  have  to  make 
some  other  resort  to  victory. 

The  battle  of  Cold  Harbor  was  sufficient  to  dispel  the  delu 
sion  of  weakness  and  demoralization  in  Lee's  army ;  for  this 
derided  army,  almost  in  the  time  it  takes  to  tell  the  story,  had 
repulsed  at  every  point  the  most  determined  assault  of  the 
enemy,  and  in  the  few  brief  moments  of  a  single  morning  had 
achieved  an  unbroken  circuit  of  victories.  Grant  and  his 
friends  were  alike  dismayed.  The  latter  insisted  that  he  should 
have  half  a  million  more  of  men  to  accomplish  his  work. 
"  We  should,"  said  a  Boston  paper,  "  have  a  vigorous  and 


272  THE  THIRD  TEAR  OF  THE  WAR. 

overwhelming  war,  or  else  peace  without  further  effusion  of 
blood."  A  certain  portion  of  the  Yankee  press  maintained  the 
unbroken  lie,  and  told  the  story  of  an  uninterrupted  series  of 
victories. 

An  object  of  most  curious  and  constant  interest  in  tRe  war 
was  the  rivalry  of  the  different  routes  to  Richmond.  Mc- 
Clellan  had  chosen  the  peninsular  approach,  while  Mr.  Lin 
coln  dissented  in  favor  of  an  advance  from  the  Lower  Rappa- 
hannock,  Burnside  had  chosen  Fredericksburg  as  his  base  ; 
Hooker  had  acted  on  the  same  choice.  Meade  had  selected 
the  Rapidan,  as  Pope  had  done  before  him.  Grant  came  to 
his  command,  unembarrassed  and  untrammeled  by  the  prece 
dents  and  comments  of  others.  He  had  hunted  up  the  roads 
to  Richmond,  through  the  Wilderness  and  Spottsylvania  Court 
house,  and  avowed  his  unchangeable  purpose  to  adhere  to  that 
as  his  true  line.  He  had  now  wandered  around  to  McClellan's 
old  base.  But  the  battle  of  July  3d,  decided  that  Richmond 
could  no  longer  be  approached  with  advantage  from  the 
North,  and  the  disconcerted,  shifting  commander,  with  his 
stock  of  expedients  well-nigh  exhausted,  found  nothing  now 
left  for  him  but  to  transfer  his  entire  army  to  the  south  side  of 
the  James  river. 

On  the  5th  of  June  Hunter  had  obtained  a  success  at  Pied 
mont,  in  Western  Virginia,  and  had  effected  the  capture  of 
Staunton ;  the  saddest  circumstance  of  which  affair  was  the 
loss  of  General  W.  E.  Jones,  one  of  the  most  distinguished 
cavalry  commanders  of  the  Confederacy. 

After  occupying  Staunton,  Hunter  had  formed  a  junction 
with  the  combined  forces  of  Crook  and  Averill,  and  on  the 
13th  of  June  was  reported  to  be  moving  with  his  whole  com 
mand  against  Lynchburg.  On  the  7th,  Sheridan  had  crossed 
the  Pamunkey,  and  was  moving  eastward  in  the  direction  of 
the  Gordonsville  railroad.  The  main  movement  of  the  new 
combination — that  of  Grant  across  the  James — commenced 
Sunday  night  the  12th  of  June. 

The  first  plan  of  the  enemy  had  comprehended  the  advance 
of  Sigel  down  the  Shenandoah,  and  the  capture  of  Petersburg, 
if  nothing  more,  by  Butler,  while  General  Grant  engaged 
Lee's  army  between  the  Rapidan  and  Richmond.  That  plan 
having  signally  failed,  the  second  comprised  the  capture  of 


THE    THIRD   YEAR    OF   THE   WAR.  .  1>  (  3 

Lynchbnrg  \>y  Hunter,  of  Gordonsville  and  Charlottesville  by 
Sheridan,  and  of  Petersburg  by  Meade.  It  was  thus  hoped  to 
isolate  the  Confederate  capital  by  cutting  off  its  communica 
tions  on  every  side. 

It  was.,  perhaps,  not  Grant's  design  to  cross  the  river  until 
he  had  made  some  attempt  on  the  Central  and  !N"ew  Market 
roads  leading  into  Richmond  from  the  direction  of  Malvern 
Hill.  On  the  13th  June,  he  caused  a  reconnoissance  in  force 
to  be  made  from  the  Long  Bridge  toward  the  Quaker  road, 
and  in  an  affair  near  the  intersection  of  this  road  with  the 
Charles  City  road  was  repulsed,  and  drew  off  his  forces,  well 
satisfied  that  the  Confederates  held  with  heavy  forces  all  the 
roads  by  which  Richmond  could  be  reached  from  the  south 
east. 

The  Eighteenth  Yankee  corps  had  proceeded  by  water  to 
Bermuda  Hundred.  The  remaining  corps  had  crossed  the 
Chickahominy  at  James  Bridge  and  Long  Bridge  ;  and  after 
the  reconnoissance  of  the  13th,  proceeded  down  the  James, 
and  crossed  in  the  neighborhood  of  City  Point. 


THE   BATTLES    OF   PETERSBURG. 

Petersburg  had  already  sustained  a  considerable  attack  of 
the  enemy.  An  expedition  from  Butler's  lines  had  essayed  its 
capture  on  the  9th  of  June. 

Approaching  with  nine  regiments  of  infantry  and  cavalry, 
and  at  least  four  pieces  of  artillery,  the  enemy  searched  our 
lines,  a  distance  of  nearly  six  miles.  Hood's  and  Batles'  bat 
talions,  the.  Forty-sixth  Virginia,  one  company  of  the  Twenty- 
third  South  Carolina,  with  Sturdevant's  battery,  and  a  few 
guns  in  position,  and  Talliaferro's  cavalry,  kept  them  at  bay. 
The  Yankees  were  twice  repulsed,  but  succeeded  at  last  in 
penetrating  a  gap  in  our  line  ;  when  reinforcements  coming  up 
drove  back  the  insolent  foe  from  approaches  which  their  foot 
steps  for  the  first  time  polluted. 

The  fortunate  issue  of  this  first  attack  on  Petersburg  encour 
aged  the  raw  troops  and  militia  who  had  been  put  under  arms 
for  the  defence  of  "  the  Cockade  City."  General  Wise  ad 
dressed  the  troops  of  his  command  in  a  memorable  and  thrill- 

18 


THE    THIRD    YEAR    OF   THE    WAR. 

ing  order ;  "  Petersburg,"  said  he,  "  is  to  be,  and  shall  be, 
defended  on  her  outer  walls,  on  her  inner  lines,  at  her  corpora 
tion  bounds,  in  every  street,  and  around  every  temple  of  God, 
and  altar  of  man." 

The  resolution  of  the  gallant  city — with  its  defences  rein 
forced  by  the  fortunate  Beauregard — was  now  to  be  put  to  a 
much  more  severe  test,  for  it  was  to  encounter  the  shock  of  the 
bulk  of  Grant's  army. 

Smith's  corps  having  disembarked  at  Bermuda  Hundred  on 
the  14th,  moved  rapidly  upon  Petersburg,  and  made  an  assault 
on  the  batteries  covering  the  approaches  to  the  city  on  the 
north-east.  Having  got  possession  of  this  line  of  works,  held 
principally  by  Confederate  militia,  Smith  waited  the  coming 
up  of  the  Second  corps. 

On  the  evening  of  the  16th,  an  attack  was  ordered  on  the 
Confederate  line  of  works  in  front  of  Petersburg,  Smith's  corps 
being  on  the  right,  on  the  Petersburg  and  City  Point  road,  • 
west  of  the  railroad,  the  Second  corps  in  the  centre,  and  Burn- 
side  on  the  left,  reaching  the  Prince  George  Court-house  road. 
The  assault  was  not  only  repulsed  at  every  point,  but  our 
troops,  assuming  the  aggressive,  drove  the  Yankees  from  their 
breastworks,  at  Hewlett's  House,  captured  some  of  their  guns, 
and  opened  upon  them  an  enfilading  fire,  under  which  they 
fled  precipitately. 

The  most  furious  assault  of  the  enemy  had  been  made  on 
General  Hoke's  front,  whose  division  occupied  a  position 
facing  batteries  from  Nine  to  Twelve  inclusive.  Three  differ 
ent  charges  were  repulsed  by  these  heroic  troops.  In  the  final 
repulse  of  the  enemy,  a  large  portion  of  a  Yankee  brigade, 
being  exposed  to  an  enfilading  artillery  fire  from  our  guns, 
sought  shelter  in  a  ravine, 'and  surrendered  to  the  Sixty -fourth 
Georgia  regiment. 

On  Friday,  17th  June,  fighting  was  renewed  without  result. 
The  next  day,  it  was  resolved  by  the  enemy  to  make  an  assault 
along  the  whole  line  for  the  purpose  of  carrying  the  town.  It 
was  thus  that  the  action  of  the  18th  was  designed  to  be  deci 
sive  of  operations  on  the  present  position. 

Three  different  assaults  were  made  by  the  enemy  during  the 
day — at  four  in  the  morning,  at  noon,  and  at  four  in  the  after 
noon.  Each  one  was  repulsed.  Hancock  and  Burnside  in  the 


THE  THIRD  TEAK  OF  THE  WAR.  275 

centre  suffered  severely.  After  severe  losses  on  the  part  of 
all  the  Yankee  corps,  night  found  the  Confederates  still  in 
possession  of  their  works  covering  Petersburg. 

The  disaster  of  this  day  left  Grant  without  hope  of  making 
any  impression  on  the  works  in  his  front,  and  placed  him  under 
the  necessity  of  yet  another  change  of  operations.  The  series 
of  engagements  before  Petersburg  had  cost  him  at  least  ten 
thousand  men  in  killed  and  wounded,  and  had  culminated  in 
another  decisive  defeat. 

The  misfortune  of  the  enemy  appeared,  indeed,  to  be  over 
whelming.  Pickett's  division  had  given  him  another  lesson 
at  Port  Walthal  Junction.  It  was  here  the  heroes  of  Gettys 
burg  repulsed  a  force  under  Gilmore* engaged  in  destroying 
the  railroad,  took  two  lines  of  his  breastworks  and  put  him  to 
disastrous  flight. 

Nor  was  there  any  compensation  to  be  found  in  the  auxil 
iary  parts  of  Grant's  second  grand  combination.  Sheridan 
had  failed  to  perform  his  part.  He  was  intercepted  by  Hamp 
ton's  cavalry  at  Trevillian  station  on  the  Gordonsville  road, 
defeated  in  an  engagement  on  the  10th,  and  compelled  to  with 
draw  his  command  across  the  North  Anna.  Hunter  had  come 
to  similar  grief,  and  his  repulse  at  Lynchburg  involved  conse 
quences  of  the  gravest  disaster  to  the  enemy. 

On  the  18th  of  June,  Hunter  made  an  attack  upon  Lynch 
burg  from  the  south  side  which  was  repulsed  by  troops  that 
had  arrived  from  General  Lee's  lines.  The  next  day,  more  re 
inforcements  having  come  up,  preparations  were  made  to 
attack  the  enemy,  when  he  retreated  in  confusion.  "We  took 
thirteen  of  his  guns,  pursued  him  to  Salem,  and  forced  him  to 
a  line  of  retreat  into  the  mountains  of  Western  Virginia.  The 
attempt  of  the  Yankees  to  whitewash  the  infamous  and  cow 
ardly  denouement  was  more  than  usually  refreshing.  Hunter 
officially  announced  that  his  expedition  had  been  "  extremely 
successful ;"  that  he  had  left  Lynchburg  because  "  his  ammu 
nition  was  running  short;"  and  that  as  to  the  singular  line  he 
had  taken  up,  he  was  now  "ready  for  a  move  in  any  di 
rection." 

But  the  measure  of  misfortune  in  Grant's  distracted  cam 
paign  appeared  to  be  not  yet  full.  On  the  22d  he  made  a 
movement  on  his  left  to  get  possession  of  the  Weldon  railroad, 


276  THE    THIRD    YEAK    OF    THE    WAK. 

but  found  the  Confederates  had  extended  their  right  to  meet 
him.  While  the  Second  and  the  Sixth  corps  of  Grant's  army 
were  attempting  to  communicate  in  this  movement,  the  Con 
federates,  under  General  Anderson,  pierced  the  centre,  cap 
tured  a  battery  of  four  guns  and  took  prisoners  one  entire 
brigade,  General  Pearce's,  and  part  of  another. 

Another  attempt  or  raid  on  the  railroad,  by  Wilson's  and 
Kautz's  divisions  of  cavalry  was  terminated  in  disaster.  In 
the  neighborhood  of  Spottswood  river,  twenty-five  miles  south 
of  Petersburg,  on  the  28th,  the  expedition  was  attacked,  cut  in 
two,  the  greater  part  of  its  artillery  abandoned  and  its  wagon 
trains  left  in  the  hands  of  the  Confederates.  The  enemy  had 
been  encountered  by  Hampton's  cavalry,  and  Finnegan's  and 
Mahone's  infantry  brigades ;  and  the  results  of  the  various 
conflicts  were  enumerated  as  one  thousand  prisoners,  thirteen 
pieces  of  artillery,  thirty  wagons  and  ambulances,  and  many 
small  arms. 

It  was  evident  that  the  spirit  of  the  North  had  commenced  to 
stagger  under  this  accumulation  of  disaster.  Gold  had  already 
nearly  touched  three  hundred.  The  uneasy  whispers  in  Wash 
ington  of  another  draft  gave  new  suggestions  to  popular  discon 
tent.  The  Confederate  Congress  had  adjourned  after  the  publi 
cation  of  an  address  referring  to  recent  military  events  and  the 
confirmed  resolution  of  the  South,  and  deprecating  the  contin 
uance  of  the  war.  These  declarations  were  eagerly  seized  upon 
by  Northern  journals,  who  insisted  that  no  time  should  be  lost 
in  determining  whether  they  might  not  possibly  signify  a 
willingness  on  the  part  of  the  South  to  make  peace  on  the 
basis  of  new  constitutional  guaranties.  The  finances  at  Wash 
ington  were  becoming  desperate.  Mr.  Chase,  the  Secretary  of 
the  Treasury,  had  peremptorily  resigned.  His  last  words  of 
official  counsel  were,  that  nothing  could  save  the  finances  but 
a  series  of  military  successes  of  undoubted  magnitude. 


SHERMAN'S    "  ON-TO-ATLANTA." 


Simultaneously  with  Grant's  advance  on  Richmond,  Sher 
man  moved  on  Dalton  in  three  columns :  Thomas  in  front, 
Schofield  from  Cleveland  on  the  north-east,  while  McPherson 


THE  THIRD  YEAR  OF  THE  WAR.  277 

threw  himself  on  the  line  of  communication  south-west  at  Re- 
saca,  fifteen  miles  south  of  Dalton.  On  the  7th  of  June, 
Thomas  occupied  Tunnel  Hill,  ten  miles  north-west  of  Dalton, 
and  took  up  a  strong  position  at  Buzzard's  Roost.  By  the 
flank  movement  on  Resaca,  Johnston  was  forced  to  evacuate 
Dalton. 

On  the  14th  the  first  important  battle  of  the  campaign  was 
fought  in  Resaca  valley.  Two  efforts  were  made  to  carry  the 
breastworks  of  the  Confederates,  without  success,  when  John 
ston  in  the  afternoon  assumed  the  offensive  and  drove  the  en 
emy  some  distance,  with  a  loss  which  his  own  bulletins  stated 
to  be  two  thousand. 

On  the  15th,  there  was  desultory  fighting,  and  on  the  16th 
General  Johnston  took  up  at  leisure  his  line  of  retrograde 
movement,  in  the  direction  of  the  Etowah  river,  passing 
through  Kingston  and  Cassville.  At  both  places  the  enemy 
was  held  in  check.  From  Cassville,  Sherman,  having  sent 
the  right  of  his  army  by  way  of  Rome,  moved  his  centre  and 
left  across  the  Etowah  west  of  the  railroad,  and  then  inarched 
towards  Dallas. 

On  the  28th,  General  Cleburne's  division  of  Johnston's  army 
engaged  the  advance  corps  of  the  enemy  under  General  Mc- 
Pherson  at  New  Hope,  and  signally  repulsed  him,  with  heavy 
loss.  So  far,  the  retrograde  movement  of  Johnston  was,  in 
some  respects,  a  success ;  it  had  been  attended  with  at  least 
two  considerable  victories ;  it  had  been  executed  deliberately, 
being  scarcely  ever  under  the  immediate  pressure  of  the  ene 
my's  advance  ;  and  it  had  now  nearly  approached  the  decisive 
line  of  the  Chattahoochee  or  whatever  other  line  he,  who  was 
supposed  to  be  the  great  strategist  of  the  Confederacy,  should  se 
lect  for  the  cover  of  Atlanta.  The  events  of  the  campaign,  so  far, 
were  recounted  with  characteristic  modesty  by  General  John 
ston.  On  the  1st  of  June,  he  telegraphed  to  Richmond  of  his 
army  :  "  In  partial  engagements  it  has  had  great  advantages, 
and  the  sum  of  all  the  combats  amounts  to  a  battle." 

In  the  mean  time,  the  two  armies  continued  to  maneuver 
for  position.  Sherman  held  both  Altoona  and  Ackworth  with 
out  a  battle,  the  latter  about  twelve  miles  from  Marietta.  It 
was  said  that  these  positions  would  enable  him  to  maintain  his 
lines  of  communications  with  Chattanooga  by  railway  intact, 


278  THE  THIRD  YEAR  OF  THE  WAR. 

and  clear  his  rear  of  Confederates ;  but  he  found  Johnston 
opposing  him  with  a  strong  rear-guard,  and  drawn  close  to  his 
supplies  in  Atlanta  and  Augusta. 

While  these  events  were  transpiring  in  Georgia,  an  import 
ant  event  had  taken  place  in  the  Southwest :  the  defeat  of 
the  Yankee  expedition  under  Sturgis  on  its  way  from  Mem 
phis  to  operate  in  Sherman's  rear.  In  this  action,  at  Guntown, 
Mississippi,  Sturgis  lost  most  of  his  infantry  and  all  of  his  ar 
tillery  and  trains,  and  the  Confederates,  under  Forrest,  achiev 
ed  a  victory  that  had  an  important  influence  on  the  campaign 
in  Georgia.  Forrest  took  two  thousand  prisoners,  and  killed 
and  wounded  an  equal  number. 


BATTLE    OF   KENESAW    MOUNTAIN. 

On  the  27th  of  June,  General  Sherman  directed  an  attack  on 
Johnston's  position  at  Kenesaw  Mountain.  This  mountain 
was  the  apex  of  Johnston's  lines.  Both  armies  were  in  strong 
works,  the  opposite  salients  being  so  near  in  some  places  that 
skirmishers  could  not  be  thrown  out.  The  assault  of  the  enemy 
was  made  in  three  columns,  about  eight  o'clock  in  the  morn 
ing.  It  was  repulsed  on  every  part  of  the  Confederate 
line.  The  loss  of  the  enemy  was  considerable,  even  as  stated 
in  his  own  official  reports.  General  McPherson  reported 
his  loss  about  five  hundred,  and  Thomas,  his,  about  two  thou 
sand. 

In  consequence,  however,  of  a  flanking  movement  of  the 
enemy  on  the  right,  Johnston  on  the  3d  of  July  abandoned 
the  mountain  defence  and  retired  toward  Atlanta. 

It  is  true  that  Johnston's  retreat  to  the  immediate  lines  of 
Atlanta,  was  consummated  without  any  considerable  military 
disaster.  But  it  was  a  sore  disappointment  to  the  public  ;  for 
it  had  given  up  to  the  Yankees  half  of  Georgia,  abandoned 
one  of  the  finest  wheat  districts  of  the  Confederacy,  almost 
ripe  for  harvest,  and  at  Home  and  on  the  Etowah  river,  had 
surrendered  to  the  enemy  iron-rolling  mills,  and  government 
works  of  great  value. 


THE  THIRD  YEAR  OF  THE  WAR.  279 


THE  BATTLES  OF  ATLANTA. 

But  a  lesson  was  reserved  for  Sherman  on  the  Atlanta  lines 
by  the  gallant  and  impulsive  Lieutenant-general  Hood,  who 
had  taken  command  of  the  army  that  Johnston  had,  by  a  long 
and  negative  campaign,  brought  back  to  Atlanta. 

We  shall  not  attempt  here  the  details  of  the  great  battles  of 
Atlanta. 

On  the  20th  of  July,  Hood  attacked  the  enemy's  right  on 
Peach-tree  creek,  near  the  Chattahoochee,  driving  him  from 
his  works,  and  capturing  colors  and  prisoners. 

On  the  22d  of  July,  Hood's  army  shifted  its  position  front 
ing  on  Peach-tree  creek,  and  Stewart's  and  Cheatham's  corps 
formed  line  of  battle  around  the  city.  Hardee's  corps  made  a 
night  march  and  attacked  the  enemy's  extreme  left  at  one 
o'clock,  on  the  22d,  and  drove  him  from  his  works,  capturing 
sixteen  pieces  of  artillery  and  five  stands  of  colors.  Cheatham 
attacked  the  enemy  at  four  o'clock  in  the  afternoon,  with  a 
portion  of  his  command,  and  drove  the  enemy,  capturing  six 
pieces  of  artillery.  During  the  engagement  we  captured  about 
two  thousand  prisoners. 

After  the  battle  of  the  22d,  Sherman's  army  was  transferred 
from  its  position  on  the  east  side  of  Atlanta  to  the  extreme 
right  of  Hood's  army,  on  the  west  side,  threatening  the  Macon 
road.  Lieutenant-generals  Stewart  and  Lee  were  directed  by 
Hood  to  hold  the  Lickskillet  road  for  the  day  with  their  com 
mands.  On  the  28th,  a  sharp  engagement  ensued,  with  no 
advantage  to  either  side  ;  the  Confederate  loss  fifteen  hundred 
killed  and  wounded. 

The  results  of  these  battles  were,  on  the  whole,  a  most 
encouraging  success  for  the  Confederates ;  revived  their  hopes 
on  what  had  been  considered  a  doubtful  theatre  of  action  ;  and 
left  Sherman,  although  still  holding  his  lines  of  investment,  in 
a  most  critical  condition,  with  an  army,  several  hundred  miles 
in  its  country,  having  its  rear  exposed,  and  depending  upon  a 
single  line  of  railroad  for  its  communications. 

We  may  take  leave  here  of  the  military  situation  ;  satisfied 


280  THE  THIRD  YEAR  OF  THE  WAR. 

that  a  pause  had  now  been  given  to  the  parallel  operations  of 
the  enemy  in  Virginia  and  Georgia  :  aimed,  the  one  at  Eich- 
mond,  which  the  Yankees  entitled  the  heart  and  brains  of  the 
Confederacy  ;  and  the  other  at  Atlanta,  the  centre  of  import 
ant  manufacturing  enterprises,  and  the  door  to  the  great 
granary  of  the  Gulf  States.  Both  movements  were  now 
unmistakably  in  check  ;  and  the  interlude  of  indecision  afford 
ed  a  curious  commentary  on  the  boastful  confidence  that  had 
recorded  the  fall  of  Eichmond  and  the  capture  of  Atlanta  as 
the  expectations  of  each  twenty-four  hours. 

There  was  reason,  indeed,  for  the  North  to  be  depressed. 
The  disappointment  of  the  Yankees  was  with  particular  refer 
ence  to  the  campaign  of  Grant  in  Virginia.  The  advance 
from  the  Eapidan,  which  we  have  followed  to  its  fecoil  before 
Petersburg,  had  been  made  under  conditions  of  success  which 
had  attended  no  other  movement  of  the  enemy.  It  was  made 
after  eight  months'  deliberate  preparation.  In  the  Congress 
at  Washington  it  was  stated  that,  in  these  eight  months,  the 
Government  had  actually  raised  seven  hundred  thousand  men 
— an  extent  of  preparation  which  indicated  an  intention  to 
overwhelm  and  crush  the  Confederacy  by  a  resistless  com 
bined  attack.  Nor  was  this  all.  One  hundred  thousand 
three-months'  men  were  accepted  from  Ohio  and  other  States, 
for  defensive  service,  in  order  that  General  Grant  might  avail 
himself  of  the  whole  force  of  trained  soldiers.  The  result  of 
the  campaign,  so  far,  did  not  justify  the  expectations  on  which 
it  had  been  planned.  The  Yankee  Government  which,  since 
the  commencement  of  the  war,  had  called  for  a  grand  total  of 
twenty-three  hundred  thousand  men,  and  had  actually  raised 
eighteen  hundred  thousand  men,  of  an  average  term  of  service 
of  three  years,  to  crush  the  Confederacy,  saw  in  the  fourth 
year  of  the  war  the  Confederacy  erect  and  defiant,  and  Eich 
mond  shielded  by  an  army  which  had  so  far  set  at  nought  the 
largest  preparations  and  most  tremendous  exertions  of  the 
North. 

"We  cannot  close  this  brief  sketch  of  important  parts  of  the 
summer  campaign  of  1S64-,  in  Virginia  and  in  the  West,  with 
out  adverting  to  the  barbarities  of  the  enemy,  which  especially 
marked  it,  and  which,  indeed,  by  regular  augmentation 
became  more  atrocious  as  the  war  progressed.  In  this  year 


THE  THIRD  YEAR  OF  THE  WAR.  281 

they  exceeded  all  that  was  already  known  of  the  brutality  of 
our  enraged  enemy. 

General  Sherman  illustrated  the  campaign  in  the  West, 
by  a  memorable  barbarity,  in  a  letter  of  instructions  to 
General  Burbridge,  commanding  in  the  Department  of  Ken 
tucky,  charging  him  to  treat  all  partisans  of  the  Confederates 
in  that  State  as  "  wild  beasts"  It  was  the  invariable  and  con 
venient  practice  of  the  Yankees  to  designate  as  "  guerillas," 
whatever  troops  of  the  Confederates  were  particularly  trouble 
some  to  them  ;  and  the  opprobrious  term  was  made,  by  Gen 
eral  Sherman,  to  include  the  regularly  commissioned  soldiers 
of  General  Morgan's  command,  and  whatever  bodies  of  Con 
federate  cavalry  chose  to  roam  over  territory  which  the  enemy 
disputed.* 

Some  expressions,  in  the  orders  referred  to,  were  character 
istic  of  the  Yankee,  and  indicated  those  notions  of  constitu 
tional  law  which  had  rapidly  demoralized  the  North.  General 
Sherman  declared  that  he  had  already  recommended  to  Gov 
ernor  Bramlette  of  Kentucky,  "  at  one  dash  to  arrest  every 
man  in  the  country  who  was  dangerous  to  it."  "  The  fact  is," 
said  this  military  Solomon,  "  in  our  country  personal  liberty 
has  been  so  well  secured  that  public  safety  is  lost  sight  of  in 
our  laws  and  institutions  ;  and  the  fact  is  we  are  thrown  back 
one  hundred  years  in  civilization,  laws,  and  every  thing  else, 

*  Br  rbridge  was  not  slow  to  carry  out  the  suggestions  or  instructions  of  his 
masters.  The  following  is  a  copy  of  a  section  of  one  of  his  orders  : 

HEADQUARTERS  DISTRICT  KENTUCKY, 
FIFTH  DIVISION,  TWENTY-THIRD  ARMY  CORPS,  \ 

LEXINGTON,  Kentucky,  July  16,  1864. 
Rebel  sympathizers  living  within  five  miles  of  any  scene  of  outrage  commit 
ted  by  armed  men,  not  recognized  as  public  enemies  by  the  rules  and  usages 
of  war,  will  be  arrested  and  sent  beyond  the  limits  of  the  United  States. 

In  accordance  with  instructions  from  the  major-general  .commanding  the 
military  district  of  the  Mississippi,  so  much  of  the  property  of  rebel  sympathiz 
ers  as  may  be  necessary  to  indemnify  the  Government  or  loyal  citizens  for 
losses  incurred  by  the  acts  of  such  lawless  men,  will  be  seized  and  appropriated 
for  this  purpose. 

Whenever  an  unarmed  Union  citizen  is  murdered,  four  guerillas  will  be 
selected  from  the  prisoners  in  the  hands  of  the  military  authorities,  and  pub 
licly  shot  to  death  in  the  most  convenient  place  near  the  scene  of  outrage.  By 
command  of 

Brevet  Major-general  S.  -uK  BURBEIDQB. 
J.  B.  DICKSON,  Captain  and  A.  A.  General. 


282  THE  THIKD  YEAK  OF  THE  WAK. 

and  will  go  right  straight  to  anarchy  and  the  devil,  if  some 
body  don't  arrest  our  downward  progress.  "We,  the  military, 

must  do  it,  and  we  have  right  and  law  on  our  side 

Under  this  law  everybody  can  be  made  to  stay  at  home  and 
mind  his  or  her  own  business,  and,  if  they  won't  do  that,  can 
be  sent  away."  These  sage  remarks  on  American  liberty  were 
concluded  with  the  recommendation  that  all  males  and 
females,  in  sympathy  with  so-called  "  guerillas,"  should  be 
arrested  and  sent  down  the  Mississippi  to  some  foreign  land, 
where  they  should  be  doomed  to  perpetual  exile. 

As  Sherman  advanced  into  the  interior  of  Georgia  he  laid 
waste  the  country,  fired  the  houses,  and  even  did  not  hesitate 
at  the  infamous  expedient  of  destroying  the  agricultural  imple 
ments  of  all  those  who  produced  from  the  soil  subsistence  for 
man.  He  declared  to  the  persecuted  people  that  this  time  he 
would  have  their  property,  but,  if  the  war  continued,  next, 
year  he  would  have  their  lives.  Four  hundred  factory  girls 
whom  he  captured  in  Georgia  he  bundled  into  army  wagons, 
and  ordered  them  to  be  transported  beyond  the  Ohio,  where 
the  poor  girls  were  put  adrift  far  from  home  and  friends,  in  a 
strange  land.* 

*  The  following  announcement  appeared  in  the  Louisville  newspapers : — 

"  ARRIVAL  OF  WOMEN  AND  CHILDREN  FROM  THE  SOUTH. — The  train  which  arrived 
from  Nashville  last  evening  brought  up  from  the  South  two  hundred  and  forty-nine 
women  and  children,  who  are  sent  here  by  order  of  General  Sherman,  to  be  trans 
ferred  north  of  the  Ohio  river,  there  to  remain  during  the  war.  We  understand  that 
there  are  now  at  Nashville  fifteen  hundred  women  and  children,  who  are  in  a  very 
destitute  condition,  and  who  are  to  be  sent  to  this  place  to  be  sent  North.  A  num 
ber  of  them  were  engaged  in  the  manufactories  at  Sweet  Water,  at  the  time  that 
place  was  captured  by  our  forces.  These  people  are  mostly  in  a  destitute  condition, 
having  no  means  to  provide  for  themselves  a  support.  Why  they  should  be  sent 
here  to  be  transferred  North  is  more  than  we  can  understand." 

It  was  also  stated  in  these  same  papers  that,  when  these  women  and  children 
arrived  at  Louisville,  they  were  detained  there  and  advertised  to  be  hired  out 
as  servants,  to  take  the  place  of  the  large  number  of  negroes  who  have  been 
liberated  by  the  military  authorities  and  are  now  gathered  in  large  camps 
throughout  Kentucky,  where  they  are  fed  and  supported  in  idleness  and 
viciousness  at  the  expense  of  the  loyal  taxpayers.  Thus,  while  these  negro 
women  are  rioting  and  luxuriating  in  the  Federal  camps,  on  the  bounty  of  the 
Government,  the  white  women  and  children  of  the  South  are  arrested  at  their 
homes,  and  sent  off  as  prisoners  to  a  distant  country,  to  be  sold  in  bondage,  as 
the  following  advertisement  fully  attests : — 

"  NOTICE. — Families  residing  in  the  city  or  the  country,  wishing  seamstresses  OT 


THE  THIRD  YEAR  OF  THE  WAR.  283 

From  Chattanooga  to  Marietta  there  was  presented  to  the 
eye  one  vast  scene  of  misery.  The  fugitives  from  ruined  vil 
lages  or  deserted  fields  sought  shelter  in  the  mountains.  Cities 
were  sacked,  towns  burnt,  populations  decimated.  All  along 
the  roads  were  great  wheat-fields,  and  crops  sufficient  to  feed 
all  New  England,  which  were  to  be  lost  for  want  of  laborers. 
The  country  had  been  one  of  the  most  beautiful  of  the  Con 
federacy.  One  looked  upon  the  gentle  undulations  of  the  val 
leys,  terminating  in  the  windings  of  the  rivers,  and  flanked  by 
the  majestic  barriers  of  the  mountains.  This  beautiful  country 
had  been  trodden  over  by  both  armies.  In  every  town  the 
more  public  buildings  and  the  more  conspicuous  residences  had 
been  devoured  by  fire,  or  riddled  with  shot  and  shell.  Every 
house  used  as  headquarters,  or  for  Confederate  commissary 
stores,  or  occupied  by  prominent  citizens,  had  been  singled  out 
by  the  enemy  for  destruction.  In  some  instances  churches  had 
not  escaped.  They  had  been  stripped  for  fire-wood  or  con 
verted  into  barracks  and  hospitals.  Fences  were  demolished, 
and  here  and  there  a  lordly  mansion  stood  an  unsightly  ruin. 

The  vandalism  of  Hunter  in  Virginia  drew  upon  him  the 
censure  of  the  few  journals  in  the  North  which  made  any  pre 
tension  to  the  decencies  of  humanity.  At  Lexington,  he  had 
burned  the  Virginia  Military  Institute  with  its  valuable  library, 
philosophical  and  chemical  apparatus,  relics  and  geological 
specimens  ;  sacked  Washington  College,  and  burned  the  house 
of  ex-Governor  Letcher,  giving  his  wife  only  ten  minutes  to 
save  a  few  articles  of  clothing. 

In  the  Southwest,  the  hellish  crimes  of  the  enemy  were 
enough  to  sicken  the  ear.  The  expedition  of  Sturgis,  defeated, 
as  we  have  seen,  in  Mississippi  by  Forrest,  flourished  the  title 
of  the  "  Avengers  of  Fort  Pillow."  "  Before  the  battle,"  says 
a  correspondent,  "  fugitives  from  the  counties  through  which 
Sturgis  and  his  troops  were  advancing,  came  into  camp  detail 
ing  incidents  which  made  men  shudder,  who  are  accustomed 
to  scenes  of  violence  and  bloodshed.  I  cannot  relate  the  stories 
of  these  poor  frightened  people.  Robbery,  rapine,  and  the 
assassination  of  men  and  women,  were  the  least  crimes  coin- 


servants,  can  be  suited  by  applying  at  the  refugee  quarters  on  Broadway,  between 
Ninth  aud  Tenth.    This  is  sanctioned  by  Captain  Jones,  Provost  Marshal." 


284-  THE    THIRD    YEAR    OF   THE    WAR. 

mitted,  while  the  '  Avengers  of  Fort  Pillow'  overran  and  deso 
lated  the  country.  Rude  unlettered  men,  who  had  fought  at 
Shiloh,  and  in  many  subsequent  battles,  wept  like  children 
when  they  heard  of  the  enormities  to  which  their  mothers,  sis 
ters,  and  wives  had  been  subjected  by  the  negro  mercenaries 
of  Sturgis." 

Such  enormities  were  monstrous  enough ;  they  shocked  the 
moral  sentiment  of  the  age;  yet  they  did  not  affright  the  soul 
of  the  South.  The  outrages  practised  upon  helpless  women, 
more  helpless  old  age,  and  hopeless  poverty,  assured  the  people 
of  the  Confederacy  of  the  character  of  their  enemies,  and  the 
designs  of  the  war,  and  awakened  resolution  to  oppose  to  the 
last  extremity  the  mob  of  murderers  and  lawless  miscreants 
who  desecrated  their  soil  and  invaded  their  homes.  The  war 
had  obtained  this  singular  hold  on  the  minds  of  the  Confed- 

£_? 

erates ;  that  every  man  considered  that  he  had  in  it  the  pracr 
tical,  individual  stake  of  his  personal  fortunes.  When  such  a 
sentiment  pervades  a  nation  in  war,  who  can  say  when  or  how 
it  may  be  conquered  ! 

At  the  time  these  pages  are  given  to  the  press,  it 

appears  that  the  great  disappointment  of  the  North  in  the  re 
sults  of  the  summer  campaign  of  1864,  has  given  rise  to  a  cer 
tain  desire  to  end  the  war  by  negotiations,  and  that  this  desire 
has  found  some  response  in  the  South.  The  undignified  and 
somewhat  ridiculous  overtures  for  peace  made  in  this  summer 
by  parties,  who,  on  each  side,  anxiously  disclaimed  that  they 
had  any  authority  from  their  governments,  but,  on  each  side, 
by  a  further  curious  coincidence,  represented  that  they  were 
acquainted  with  the  wishes  and  views  of  their  governments, 
cannot  be  altogether  a  story  of  egotistical  adventures.  They 
betray  the  incipiency,  though  an  obscure  one,  of  negotiations ; 
and  the  times  are  rapidly  making  developments  of  the  tendency 
of  an  appeal  to  compose  the  war. 

We  cannot  anticipate  what  bribes  may  be  offered  the  South 
to  confederate  again  with  the  North.  But  one  has  been  already 
suggested  in  the  North :  it  is,  to  find  an  atrocious  compensation 
for  the  war  in  a  combined  crusade  against  foreign  nations. 

The  New  York  Herald  declares:  "  With  a  restored  Union, 
prosperity  would  once  more  bless  the  land.  If  any  bad  blood 
remained  on  either  side,  it  would  soon  disappear,  or  be  purged 


THE  THIRD  YEAR  OF  THE  WAR.  285 

by  a  foreign  war.  With  a  combined  veteran  army  of  over  a 
million  of  men,  and  a  fleet  more  powerful  than  that  of  any 
European  power,  we  could  order  France  from  Mexico,  England 
from  Canada,  and  Spain  from  Cuba,  and  enforce  our  orders  if 
they  were  not  obeyed.  The  American  continent  would  then 
belong  to  Americans.  The  President  at  Washington  would 
govern  the  New  World,  and  the  glorious  dreams  and  prophe 
cies  of  our  forefathers  would  at  length  be  realized." 

To  a  proposition  of  such  infamy  of  infamies,  the  attention  of 
the  civilized  world  should  be  called.  What  a  commentary 
upon  that  European  policy  which  has  lavished  so  much  of 
sympathy  and  material  comfort  upon  the  North,  and,  on  the 
other  hand,  has  rejected  the  cause  of  a  people,  who  as  they  are 
resolute  in  maintaining  their  own  rights,  are  as  equally,  indeed 
expressly  and  emphatically,  innocent  of  any  designs  on  the 
right  and  welfare  of  others  !  The  suggestion  is,  that  of  a  huge 
and  horrible  Democracy,  eager  to  prey  upon  the  rights  of 
others,  and  to  repair  by  plunder  and  outrage  the  cost  of  its 
feuds  and  the  waste  of  its  vices. 

The  people  of  the  Confederacy  do  not  easily  listen  to  sug 
gestions  of  dishonor.  Yet  none  are  more  open  to  the  cunning 
persuasion  which  wears  the  disguise  of  virtuous  remonstrance 
and  friendly  interest.  It  is  here  where  the  Yankee  peacemaker 
is  to  be  resisted  and  unmasked. 

It  will  be  for  the  Confederacy  to  stand  firm  in  every  political 
conjuncture,  and  to  fortify  itself  against  the  blandishments  and 
arts  of  a  disconcerted  and  designing  enemy.  It  will  remember 
that  enemy's  warfare.  It  will  remember  that  an  army,  whose 
•personnel  has  been  drawn  from  all  parties  in  the  North,  has 
carried  the  war  of  the  savage  into  their  homes.  It  will  re 
member  how  Yankees  have  smacked  their  lips  over  their  car 
nage  and  the  sufferings  of  their  women -and  little  ones.  It  will 
remember  how  New  England  clergymen  have  advised  that 
"  rebels,"  men,  women  and  children,  should  be  sunk  beneath 
the  Southern  sod,  and  the  soil  "  salted  with  Puritanical  blood, 
to  raise  a  new  crop  of  men."  To  hate  let  us  not  reply  with 
hate.  We  reply  with  the  superiority  of  contempt,  the  resolu 
tion  of  pride,  the  scorn  of  defiance.  Surely,  rather  than  re 
unite  with  such  a  people;  rather  than  cheat  the  war  of  "inde 
pendence,"  and  make  its  prize  that  cheap  thing  in  American 


286  THE  THIRD  TEAK  OF  THE  WAR. 

•  history — a  paper  guarantee ;  rather  than  cheat  our  dead  of  that 
for  which  they  died  ;  rather  than  entitle  ourselves  to  the  con 
tempt  of  the  world,  the  agonies  of  self-accusation,  the  reproot 

t  of  the  grave,  the  curses  of  posterity,  the  displeasure  of  the  mer 
ciful  God  who  has  so  long  signified  His  providence  in  our  en 
deavors,  we  are  prepared  to  choose  more  suffering,  more  trials, 
even  utter  poverty  and  chains,  and  exile  and  death. 


THE   THIRD   TEAR   OF   THE   WAR.  287 

^  LIBRA  K  V 

UNIVERSITY   <> 

CALIFORNIA. 


CHAPTER   XIII.\ 


AMERICAN    IDEAS  I     A   REVIEW   OF    THE   WAR. 

Sentimental  Regrets  concerning  American  History.— The  European  Opinion  of 
'  State"  Institutions. — Calhoun,  the  Great  Political  Scholar  of  America. — His  Doc 
trines. —  Conservatism  of  "  Nullification." — Its  "  Union"  Sentiment. — Brilliant  Vision 
of  the  South  Carolina  Statesman. — Webster,  the  Representative  of  the  Imperfect  and 
Insolent  "  Education"  of  New  England. — Yankee  Libels  in  the  shape  of  Party 
Nomenclature. — Influence  of  State  Institutions. — How  they  were  Auxiliary  to  the 
Union. —  The  Moral  Veneration  of  the  Union  Peculiarly  a,  Sentiment  of  the  South. — 
What  the  South  had  done  for  the  Union. — Senator  Hammond's  Speech. — The  States, 
not  Schools  of  Provincialism  and  Estrangement. — The  Development  of  America,  a 
North  and  South,  not  Hostile  States.— Peculiar  Ideas  of  Yankee  Civilization. — Ideas 
Nursed  in  "Free  Schools." — Yankee  Materialism. — How  it  has  Developed  in  the 
War. — Yankee  Falsehoods  and  Yankee  Cruelties. — His  Commercial  Politics. — Price 
of  his  Liberties. — Ideas  of  the  Confederates  in  the  War.— How  the  Washington. 
Routine  was  introduced.  —  The  Richmond  Government,  Weak  and  Negative. — 
No  Political  Novelty  in  the  Confederacy. — The  Future  of  Confederate  Ideas. — 
Intellectual  Barrenness  of  the  War. — Material  of  the  Confederate  Army. — The 
Birth  of  Great  Ideas.— The  Old  Political  Iddlators.— The  Recompense  of  Suf 
fering. 

It  has  been  a  sentimental  regret  with  certain  European  stu 
dents  of  American  History  that  the  colonies  of  America,  after 
acquiring  their  independence,  did  not  establish  a  single  and 
compact  nationality.  The  philosophy  of  these  optimists  is  that 
the  State  institutions  were  perpetual  schools  of  provincialism, 
selfishness,  and  discontent,  and  that  they  were  constantly  edu 
cating  the  people  for  the  disruption  of  that  Union  which  was 
only  a  partial  and  incomplete  expression  of  the  nationality  of 
America.  These  men  indulge  the  idea  that  America,  as  a  na 
tion,  would  have  been  colossal ;  that  its  wonderful  mountains 
and  rivers,  its  vast  stretch  of  territory,  its  teeming  wealth,  and 
the  almost  boundless  military  resources,  which  the  present  war 
has  developed  and  proved,  would  then  have  deen  united  in  one 
picture  of  grandeur,  and  in  a  single  movement  of  sublime,  ir 
resistible  progress. 

These  are  pretty  dreams  of  ignorance.  Those  who  ascribe 
to  the  State  institutions  of  America  our  present  distractions, 


238  THE  THIRD  YEAR  OF  THE  WAR. 

and  discover  in  them  the  nurseries  of  the  existing  war,  are 
essentially  ignorant  of  our  political  history.  They  are  stran 
gers  to  the  doctrines  of  Calhoun  of  South  Carolina — the  first 
name  in  the  political  literature  of  our  old  government — the 
first  man  who  raised  the  party  controversies  of  America  to  the 
dignity  of  a  political  philosophy  and  illuminated  them  with 
the  lights  of  the  patient  and  accomplished  scholar. 

The  great  political  discovery  of  Mr.  Calhoun  was  this  :  that 
the  rights  of  the  States  were  the  only  solid  foundation  of  the 
Union  ;  and  that,  so  far  from  being  antagonistic  to  it,  they  con 
stituted  its  security,  realized  its  perfection,  and  gave  to  it  all 
the  moral  beauty  with  which  it  appealed  to  the  affections  of 
the  people.  It  was  in  this  sense  that  the  great  South  Carolina 
statesman,  so  frequently  calumniated  as  "  nullifier,"  agitator, 
&c  ,  was  indeed  the  real  and  devoted  friend  of  the  American 
Union.  He  maintained  the  rights  of  the  States — the  sacred 
distribution  of  powers  between  them  and  the  general  govern-* 
ment — as  the  life  of  the  Union,  and  its  bond  of  attachment  in 
the  hearts  of  the  people.  And  in  this  he  was  right.  The  State 
institutions  of  America,  properly  regarded,  were  not  discord 
ant ;  nor  were  they  unfortunate  elements  in  our  political  life. 
They  gave  certain  occasions  to  the  divisions  of  industry  ;  they 
were  instruments  of  material  prosperity  ;  they  were  schools  of 
pride  and  emulation  ;  above  all,  they  were  the  true  guardians 
of  the  Union,  keeping  it  from  degenerating  into  that  vile  and 
short-lived  government  in  which  power  is  consolidated  in  a 
mere  numerical  majority. 

Mr.  Calhoun's  so-called  doctrine  of  Nullification  is  one  of 
the  highest  proofs  ever  given  by  any  American  statesman  of 
attachment  to  the  Union.  The  assertion  is  not  made  for  para 
doxical  effect.  It  is  clear  enough  in  history,  read  in  the  severe 
type  of  facts,  without  the  falsehoods  and  epithets  of  that  Yan 
kee  literature  which  has  so  long  defamed  us,  distorted  our 
public  men,  and  misrepresented  us,  even  to  ourselves. 

The  so-called  and  miscalled  doctrine  of  Nullification  marked 
one  of  the  most  critical  periods  in  the  controversies  of  Amer 
ica,  and  constitutes  one  of  the  most  curious  studies  for  its 
philosophic  historian.  Mr.  Calhoun  was  unwilling  to  offend 
the  popular  idolatry  of  the  Union  ;  he  sought  a  remedy  for 
existing  evils  short  of  disunion,  and  the  consequence  was  what 


THE  THIRD  YEAR  OF  THE  WAR.  289 

was  called,  by  an  ingenious  slander,  or  a  contemptible  stu 
pidity,  Nullification.  His  doctrine  was,  in  fact,  an  accommo 
dation  of  two  sentiments  :  that  of  Yankee  injustice  and  that  of 
reverence  of  the  Union.  lie  proposed  to  save  the  Union  by 
the  simple  and  august  means  of  an  appeal  to  the  sovereign 
States  that  composed  it.  He  proposed  that  should  the  general 
government  and  a  state  come  into  conflict,  the  power  should 
be  invoked  that  called  the  general  government  into  existence, 
and  gave  it  all  of  its  authority.  In  such  a  case,  said  Mr.  Cal- 
houn,  "  the  States  themselves  may  be  appealed  to,  three- 
fourths  of  which,  in  fact,  form  a  power  whose  decrees  are  the 
Constitution  itself,  and  whose  voice  can  silence  all  discontent. 
The  utmost  extent,  then,  of  the  power  is,  that  a  State  acting  in 
its  sovereign  capacity,  as  one  of  the  parties  to  the  constitu 
tional  compact,  may  compel  the  government  created  by  that 
compact  to  submit  a  question  touching  its  infraction  to  the 
parties  who  created  it."  He  proposed  a  peculiar,  conserva 
tive,  and  noble  tribunal  for  the  controversies  that  agitated  the 
country  and  threatened  the  Union.  He  was  not  willing  that 
vital  controversies  between  the  sovereign  States  and  the  gen 
eral  government  should  be  submitted  to  the  Supreme  Court, 
which  properly  excluded  political  questions,  and  comprehend 
ed  those  only  where  there  were  parties  amenable  to  the  pro 
cess  of  the  court.  This  was  the  length  and  breadth  of  Nullifi 
cation.  It  was  intended  to  reconcile  impatience  of  Yankee 
injustice,  and  that  sentimental  attachment  to  the  Union  which 
colors  so  much  of  American  politics ;  it  resisted  the  suggestion 
of  revolution ;  it  clung  to  the  idolatry  of  the  Union,  and 
marked  that  passage  in  American  history  in  which  there  was 
a  combat  between  reason  and  that  idolatry,  and  in  which  that 
idolatry  made  a  showy,  but  ephemeral  conquest. 

The  doctrine,  then,  of  Mr.  Calhoun  was  this  :  he  proposed 
only  to  constitute  a  conservative  and  constitutional  barrier  to 
Yankee  aggression ;  and,  so  far  from  destroying  the  Union, 
proposed  to  erect  over  it  the  permanent  and  august  guard  of  a 
tribunal  of  those  sovereign  powers  which  had  created  it.  It 
was  this  splendid,  but  hopeless  vision  of  the  South  Carolina 
statesman,  which  the  North  slandered  with  the  catch-word  of 
Nullification  ;  which  Northern  orators  made  the  text  of  indig 
nation  ;  on  which  Mr.  "Webster  piped  his  schoolboy  rhetoric ; 

19 


290  THE  THIRD  YEAR  OF  THE  WAR. 

and  on  which  the  more  modern  schools  of  New  England  have 
exhausted  the  lettered  resources  of  their  learned  blacksmiths 
and  Senatorial  shoemakers.  Mr.  Webster,  the  representative 
of  that  imperfect  and  insolent  education  peculiar  to  New  Eng 
land,  appears  never  to  have  known  that  Mr.  Calhoun's  doc 
trine  was  not  of  his  own  origination  ;  that  its  suggestion,  at 
least,  came  from  one  of  the  founders  of  the  republic.  We  re 
fer  to  that  name  which  is  apostolic  in  the  earliest  party  divis 
ions  of  America,  and  the  enduring  ornament  of  Virginia — 
Thomas  Jefferson,  the  Sage  of  Monticello.  At  a  late  period  of 
his  life,  Mr.  Jefferson  said :  "  With  respect  to  our  State  and 
Federal  governments,  I  do  not  think  their  relations  are  cor 
rectly  understood  by  foreigners.  They  suppose  the  former 
subordinate  to  the  latter.  This  is  not  the  case.  They  are  co 
ordinate  departments  of  one  simple  and  integral  whole.  But 
you  may  ask  if  the  two  departments  should  claim  each  the 
same  subject  of  power,  where  is  the  umpire  to  decide  between 
them  ?  In  cases  of  little  urgency  or  importance,  the  prudence 
of  both  parties  will  keep  them  aloof  from  the  questionable 
ground  ;  but,  if  it  can  neither  be  avoided  nor  compromised,  a 
Convention  of  the  States  must  be  called  to  ascribe  the  doubt 
ful  power  to  that  department  which  they  may  think  best." 

Here  was  the  first  suggestion  of  the  real  safety  of  the  Union  ; 
and  it  was  this  suggestion,  reproduced  by  Calhoun,  which  the 
North  slandered  as  Nullification,  insulted  as  heresy,  and 
branded  as  treason. 

It  is  a  remarkable  circumstance  that  the  South  should  have 
tamely  allowed  the  Yankees  to  impose  upon  her  political  lit 
erature  certain  injurious  terms,  and  should  have  adopted  them 
to  her  own  prejudice  and  shame.  The  world  takes  its  impres 
sion  from  names ;  and  the  false  party  nomenclature  which  the 
North  so  easily  fastened  upon  us,  and  which  survives  even  in 
this  war,  has  had  a  most  important  influence  in  obscuring  our 
history,  and  especially  in  soliciting  the  prejudices  of 'Europe. 

The  proposition  of  Mr.  Calhoun  to  protect  the  Union  by  a 
certain  constitutional  and  conservative  barrier,  the  North  des 
ignated  Nullification,  and  the  South  adopted  a  name  which 
was  both  a  falsehood  and  a  slander.  The  well-guarded  and 
moderate  system  of  negro  servitude  in  the  South,  the  North 
called  Slavery ;  and  this  false  and  accursed  name  has  been 


THE  THIRD  TEAR  OF  THE  WAR.  291 

permitted  to  pass  current  in  European  literature,  associating 
and  carrying  with  it  the  horrofs  of  barbarism,  and  defiling  us 
in  the  eyes  of  the  world.  The  Democratic  party  in  the  South, 
which  claimed  equality  under  the  Constitution,  as  a  principle, 
and  not  merely  as  a  selfish  interest,  was  branded  by  the  "North 
as  a  pro-slavery  party,  and  the  South  submitted  to  the  desig 
nation. 

How  little  that  great  party  deserved  this  title  was  well  illus 
trated  in  the  famous  Kansas  controversy ;  for  the  history  of 
that  controversy  was  simply  this  :  the  South  struggled  for  the 
principle  of  equality  in  the  Territories,  without  reference  to  the 
selfish  interests  of  so-called  Slavery,  and  even  with  the  admis 
sion  of  the  hopelessness  of  those  interests  in  Kansas ;  while  the 
North  contended  for  the  narrow,  selfish,  practical  consequence 
of  making  Kansas  a  part  of  her  Free-soil  possessions.  The 
proofs  of  this  may  be  made  in  two  Brief  extracts  from  these 
celebrated  debates.  These  are  so  full  of  historical  instruction 
that  they  supply  a  place  here  much  better  than  any  narrative 
or  comment  could  do  : 

Mr.  ENGLISH,  of  Indiana. — I  think  I  may  safely  say  that  there  is  not  a 
Southern  man  within  the  sound  of  my  voice  who  will  not  vote  for  the  admis 
sion  of  Kansas  as  a  Free  state,  if  she  brings  here  a  Constitution  to  that  effect. 
Is  there  a  Southern  man  here  who  will  vote  against  the  admission  of  Kansas 
as  a  Free  State,  if  it  be  the  undoubted  will  of  the  people  of  that  Territory  that 
it  shall  be  a  Free  State  ? 

MANY  MEMBERS. — Not  one. 

At  another  stage  of  the  Kansas  debate  occurs  the  following : 

Mr.  BARKSDALE,  of  Mississippi. — I  ask  you,  gentlemen,  on  the  other  side  of 
the  House,  of  the  Black  Republican  party,  would  you  vote  for  the  admission  of 
Kansas  into  the  Union,  with  a  Constitution  tolerating  Slavery,  if  a  hundred 
thousand  people  there  wished  it  ? 

Mr.  GIDDINGS,  of  Ohio.— I  answer  the  gentleman  that  I  will  never  associate, 
politically,  with  men  of  that  character,  if  I  can  help  it.  I  will  never  vote  to 
compel  Ohio  to  associate  with  another  Slave  State,  if  I  can  prevent  it. 

Mr.  STANTON.— I  will  say,  if  the  gentleman  will  allow  me,  that  the  Repub 
lican  members  of  this  House,  so  far  as  I  know,  will  never  vote  for  the  admis 
sion  of  any  Slave  State  north  of  36°  30'. 

We  return  to  the  influence  of  State  institutions  on  America. 
We   contend   that   they  were  not  hostile  to   the  Union,  or 


THE   THIRD   YEAK    OF    THE    WAR. 

malignant  in  their  character ;  that,  on  the  contrary,  they  were 
auxiliary  to  the  Union;  that- they  stimulated  the  national 
progress ;  that,  in  fact,  they  interpreted  the  true  glory  of 
America ;  and  that  it  was  especially  these  modifications  of  our 
national  life  which  gave  to  the  Union  that  certain  moral 
sublimity  so  long  the  theme  of  American  politicians.  From 
these  propositions  we  advance  to  a  singular  conclusion.  It  is 
that  the  moral  veneration  of  the  Union,  which  gives  the  key  to 
so  much  of  American  history,  was  peculiarly  a  sentiment  of 
the  South  ;  while  in  the  JSTorth  it  was  nothing  more  than  a  mere 
affectation. 

This  may  sound  strange  to  those  who  have  read  American 
history  in  the  smooth  surface  of  Yankee  books ;  who  remember 
Webster's  apostrophes  to  the  glorious  Union,  anol  Everett's 
silken  rhetoric ;  whose  political  education  has  been  manu 
factured  to  hand  by  the  ^newspapers,  and  clap-traps  of  Yankee 
literature  about  "  nullification"  and  treason.  But  it  is  easy  of 
comprehension.  The  political  ideas  of  the  North  excluded  that 
of  any  peculiar  moral  character  about  the  Union  ;  the  doctrine 
of  State  Rights  was  rejected  by  them  for  the  prevalent  notion 
that  America  was  a  single  democracy  ;  thus,  the  Union  to  them 
was  nothing  more  than  a  geographical  name,  entitled  to  no 
peculiar  claims  upon  the  affections  of  the  people.  It  was 
different  with  the  South.  The  doctrine  of  State  Rights  gave 
to  the  Union  its  moral  dignity  ;  this  doctrine  was  the  only  real 
possible  source  of  sentimental  attachment  to  the  Union ;  and 
this  doctrine  was  the  received  opinion  of  the  Southern  people, 
and  the  most  marked  peculiarity  of  their  politics.  The  South 
did  not  worship  the  Union  in  the  base  spirit  of  commercial 
idolatry,  as  a  painted  machinery  to  secure  tariffs  and  bounties, 
and  to  aggrandize  a  section.  She  venerated  the  Union  because 
she  discovered  in  it  a  sublime  moral  principle ;  because  she  re 
garded  it  as  a  peculiar  association  in  which  sovereign  States 
were  held  by  high  considerations  of  good  faith ;  by  the  ex 
changes  of  equity  and  comity ;  by  the  noble  attractions  of 
social  order ;  by  the  enthused  sympathies  of  a  common  destiny 
of  power,  honor,  and  renown.  It  was  this  galaxy  which  the 
South  wore  upon  her  heart,  and  before  the  clustered  fires  of 
whose  glory  she  worshipped  with  an  adoration  almost  Oriental. 
That  Union  is  now  dissolved  \  that  splendid  galaxy  of  stars  is 


THE  THIRD  YEAR  OF  THE  WAR.  293 

no  more  in  the  heavens;  and  where  once  it  shone,  the  fierce 
comet  of  war  has  burst,  and  writes  a  red  history  on  the  azure 
page. 

But  let  this  be  said  by  the  historian  of  this  war :  that  the 
South  loved  the  Union  ;  dissolved  it  unwillingly  ;  and,  though 
she  had  had  the  political  administration  of  it  in  her  hands 
during  most  of  its  existence,  surrendered  it  without  a  blot  on 
its  fame.  "Do  not  forget,"  said  a  Southern  Senator,  when  Mr. 
Seward  boasted  in  the  United  States  Senate  that  the  North  was 
about  to  take  control  at  Washington,  "  it  can  never  be  forgot 
ten — it  is  written  on  the  brightest  page  of  human  history — 
that  we,  the  slaveholders  of  the  South,  took  our  country  in  her 
infancy,  and,  after  ruling  her  for  sixty  out  of  the  seventy  years 
of  her  existence,  we  shall  surrender  her  to  you  without  a  stain 
upon  her  honor,  boundless  in  prosperity,  incalculable  in  her 
strength,  the  wonder  and  the  admiration  of  the  world.  Time 
will  show  what  you  will  make  of  her;  but  no  time  can  ever 
diminish  our  glory  or  your  responsibility." 

But  there  is  one  conclusive  argument  which  we  may  apply 
to  the  common  European  opinion,  and  the  half-educated  notion 
of  this  country  that  the  State  institutions  of  America  were 
schools  of  provincialism  and  estrangement.  If  such  had  been 
the  case,  the  dissolution  of  the  Union  would  have  found  the 
States  that  composed  it  a  number  of  petty  principalities  op 
posed  to  each  other,  or,  at  least,  diverse  and  heterogeneous. 
But  this  war  has  found  no  such  thing.  It  has  found  the  people 
of  Virginia  and  Tennessee,  the  people  of  Missouri  and  South 
Carolina,  entertaining  the  same  political  ideas,  pursuing  a 
single,  common  object  in  the  war,  and  baptizing  it  in  a  com 
mon  bloodshed  on  its  fields  of  contest  and  carnage.  The  States 
of  the  Southern  Confederacy  offer  to  the  world  the  example  of 
its  inhabitants  as  one  people,  homogeneous  in  their  social 
systems,  alike  in  their  ideas,  and  unanimous  in  their  resolves ; 
and  the  States  of  the  North  afford  similar  illustrations  of 
national  unity.  The  war  has  found  not  discordant  States,  but 
two  distinct  nations,  in  the  attitude  of  belligerents,  differing  in 
blood,  in  race,  in  social  institutions,  in  systems  of  popular  in 
struction,  in  political  education  and  theories,  in  ideas,  in  man 
ners  ;  and  the  whole  sharpened  by  a  long  and  fierce  political 
controversy,  that  has  arrayed  them  at  last  as  belligerents, 


294:  THE   THIRD   YEAR    OF   THE   WAR. 

and  interposed  the  gage  of  armed  and  bloody  contest.  The 
development  of  America  has  been  a  North  and  a  South; 
not  discordant  States,  but  hostile  nations.  The  present  war 
is  not  for  paltry  theories  of  political  parties,  or  for  domestic 
institutions,  or  for  rival  administrations,  but  for  the  vital 
ideas  of  each  belligerent,  and  the  great  stakes  of  national 
existence. 

What  have  been  the  ideas  which  the  North  has  developed  or 
illustrated  in  this  war  ?  We  will  answer  briefly. 

The  North  presents  to  the  world  the  example  of  a  people 
corrupted  by  a  gross  material  prosperity ;  their  ideas  of  gov 
ernment,  a  low  and  selfish  utilitarianism ;  their  conceptions  of 
civilization,  prosperous  railroads,  penny  newspapers,  showy 
churches.  Their  own  estimates  of  their  civilization  never  pene 
trated  beyond  the  mere  surface  and  convenience  of  society; 
never  took  into  account  its  unseen  elements;  the  public  virtue, 
the  public  spirit,  the  conservative  principle,  the  love  of  order, 
the  reverence  of  the  past,  all  which  go  to  make  up  the  grand 
idea  of  human  civilization. 

It  is  amusing  to  the  student  of  history  to  hear  Mr.  Sumner, 
of  Massachusetts,  asserting,  with  scholarly  flourishes,  that  the 
South  is  barbarous,  because  she  has  no  free  schools  :  the  sources 
of  that  half  education  in  the  North,  which  have  been  nurseries 
of  insolence,  irreverence  of  the  past,  infidelity  in  religion,  and 
an  itch  for  every  new  idea  in  the  mad  calendar  of  social  re 
forms.  It  is  yet  more  amusing  to  hear  his  Senatorial  peer — 
"  the  Natick  cobbler."  When,  on  the  eve  of  the  downfall  of 
the  government  at  Washington,  a  Southern  Senator  depicted 
the  wealth  that  the  South  had  poured  into  the  lap  of  the 
Union,  the  elements  it  had  contributed  to  its  civilization,  and 
the  virtues  it  had  brought  to  its  adornment,  Mr.  Wilson,  of 
Massachusetts,  had  this  reply:  "Massachusetts  has  more  re 
ligious  newspapers  than  all  the  slaveholding  States  of  the 
Union." 

The  people  of  the  North  have  never  studied  politics  as  a 
moral  science.  They  have  no  idea  of  government  as  an  inde 
pendent  principle  of  truth,  virtue  and  honor ;  to  them  it  is 
merely  an  engine  of  material  prosperity — a  mere  auxiliary 
appendage  to  a  noisy,  clattering  world  of  trade,  and  steam,  and 
telegraphs.  It  is  this  low  commercial  sense  of  government 


THE  THIRD  YEAR  OF  THE  WAR.  295 

which  developed  all  the  old  Yankee  theories  of  tariffs,  and 
bounties,  and  free  farms. 

Indeed,  the  most  fruitful  study  in  American  politics  is  the 
peculiar  materialistic  idea  of  the  Yankee.  Its  developments 
are  various,  but  all  held  together  by  the  same  leading  idea : 
superficial  notions  of  civilization ;  agrarian  theories ;  the  sub 
ordination  of  the  principles  of  government  to  trade;  mercantile 
"statesmanship;"  the  exclusion  of  moral  ideas  from  politics; 
the  reduction  of  the  whole  theory  of  society  to  the  base  measure 
of  commercial  interests.  Such  are  some  of  the  developments 
of  the  materialistic  idea :  the  last  and  fullest  is  the  present 
war. 

This  war,  on  the  part  of  the  Yankee,  is  essentially  a  war  of 
interest :  hence  its  negation,  on  his  part,  of  all  principles  and 
morals ;  hence  its  adoption  of  that  coarse  maxim  of  commercial 
casuistry,  "the  end  justifies  the  means;"  hence  its  treachery, 
its  arts  of  bad  faith,  its  "  cuteness"  on  all  belligerent  questions  ; 
hence  its  atrocities  which  have  debased  the  rules  of  civilized 
warfare  to  a  code  of  assassins  and  brigands.  It  is  true  that  the 
North  has  affected  in  this  war  such  sentiments  as  love  of  the 
Union,  reverence  of  the  American  nationality,  a  romantic 
attachment  to  the  old  flag.  But  we  repeat  that  the  proof  that 
the  North  has  fought  for  coarse,  material  interests  in  this  war 
is  the  conduct  of  the  war  itself. 

War  is  horrible ;  but  it  has  its  laws  of  order  and  amelioration. 
Civilization  has  kindled  the  dark  cloud  of  horrors  with  the 
vestal  observances  of  honor ;  and  the  undying  lights  of  human 
ity  have  irradiated  its  aspects — softened  the  countenance  of 
the  Giant  who 

"  On  the  mountain  stands, 
His  blood-red  tresses  deepening  in  the  sun, 
With  death-shot  glowing  in  his  fiery  hands." 

But  where,  in  this  war  of  the  Yankee,  shall  we  find  exhibi 
tions  of  the  chivalry  and  amenity  of  modern  belligerents.  A 
ghostly  echo  comes  shrieking  from  fields  blackened  by  fire, 
and  scarred  and  tormented  by  the  endless  scourge  of  the  tyrant. 
The  characteristics  of  the  Yankee  war  are  precisely  those 
which  arise  out  of  the  materialistic  idea  :  treachery  dignified 
as  genius,  and  cruelty  set  up  to  gaze  as  the  grandeur  of  power. 


296  THE  THIRD  YEAR  OF  THE  WAR. 

The  crooked  woof  of  treachery — the  scarlet  thread  of  the  lie — 
have  been  woven  by  the  Yankee  into  every  part  of  this  war.* 
It  is  not  necessary  to  unravel  here  the  whole  story  of  Yankee 
falsehood.  One  instance  will  suffice.  The  government  which, 
at  the  commencement  of  hostilities,  played  at  the  game  of  con 
ciliation  by  affecting  to  arrest  on  the  streets  of  its  capital, 
"Washington,  fugitive  slaves,  and  to  return  them  to  their  mas 
ters  ;  which,  in  the  first  months  of  the  war,  declared  that  it 
<;  repudiated  all  designs  whatever,  and  wherever  imputed  to  it, 
of  disturbing  the  system  of  slavery ; "  that  any  such  effort 
would  be  "  unconstitutional ;  "  and  that  "  all  acts  of  the  Pres 
ident  in  that  direction  would  be  prevented  by  the  judicial  au 
thority,  even  though  they  were  assented  to  by  Congress  and 
the  people  "—for  such  was  the  solemn  assurance  of  Mr.  Sew- 


*  It  is  a  curious  fact,  in  the  indisputable  records  of  American  History,  that 
the  separation  of  the  Southern  States  from  the  Union,  is  defensible,  in  all  res 
pects;  that  is,  as  an  assertion  of  State  rights,  and,  again,  as  an  assertion  of  the 
still  higher  principle  of  self-government — on  grounds  taken  by  our  enemies, 
when  it  suited  them,  to  take  those  grounds. 

With  reference  to  the  ground  of  State  Rights : 

At  the  third  session  of  the  Eleventh  Congress,  in  1811,  the  dissolution  of  the 
Union  was  spoken  of  for  the  first  time,  by  a  member  from  the  State  of  Massa 
chusetts.  The  bill  to  form  a  Constitution  and  State  Government  for  the  Terri 
tory  of  Orleans,  and  the  admission  of  such  State,  under  the  name  of  Louisiana, 
into  the  Union,  was  under  consideration. 

"  Mr.  Quincy,  of  Massachusetts,  in  opposition  to  the  bill,  said  :  '  I  am  com 
pelled  to  declare  it  as  my  deliberate  opinion,  that  if  this  bill  passes,  the  bonds 
of  this  Union  are  virtually  dissolved ;  that  the  States  which  compose  it  are  free 
from  their  obligations,  and  that,  as  it  will  be  the  right  of  all,  so  it  will  be  the 
duty  of  some,  to  prepare  definitely  for  a  separation — amicably,  if  they  can ; 
violently,  if  they  must.' 

"  Mr.  Quincy  was  here  called  to  order  by  Mr.  Poindexter. 

"  Mr.  Quincy  repeated  and  justified  the  remark  he  had  made,  which,  to  save 
all  misapprehension,  he  committed  to  writing  in  the  following  words :  '  If 
this  bill  passes,  it  is  my  deliberate  opinion  that  it  is  virtually  a  dissolution  of 
this  Union  ;  that  it  will  free  the  States  from  their  moral  obligations,  and,  as  it 
will  be  the  right  of  all,  so  it  will  be  the  duty  of  some,  definitely  to  prepare  for 
a  separation — amicably,  if  they  can  ;  violently,  if  they  must.' " 

In  1844,  the  Legislature  of  Massachusetts  resolved  that  the  annexation  of 
Texas  would  be  cause  of  dissolution  of  the  Union. 

With  reference  to  the  other,  higher  ground  of  Self-Government : 

Abraham  Lincoln,  now  President  at  Washington  said  :  "  Any  people,  any 
where,  being  inclined  and  having  the  power,  have  the  right  to  rise  up  and 
shake  off  the  existing  Government,  and  form  a  new  one  that  suits  them  better. 
Nor  is  this  right  confined  to  cases  where  the  people  of  an  existing  Government 


THE  THIRD  TEAR  OF  THE  WAR.  297 

ard's  diplomatic  circular  of  1861 ;  which  promised  the  South 
"  the  Constitution  as  it  was,"  and  recited  poetry  in  Congress 
entreating  South  Carolina  to  return  to  the  bosom  of  the  Union 
is  to-day  found  making  the  boast — rather,  we  may  say,  indulg 
ing  the  fiendish  exultation — that  it  has  Abolitionized  every 
district  it  has  invaded  ;  that  it  has  forced  into  military  service 
one  hundred  thousand  blacks,  stolen  from  their  masters ;  that 
it  has  forcibly  consigned  them  from  peaceful  occupations  to 
the  perils  of  the  battle-field  ;  and  that  it  has  whetted  their  ig 
norant  and  savage  natures  with  an  appetite  for  the  blood  of 
the  white  man  of  the  Confederacy.     And  this  stupendous  lie  is 
called  the  genius  of  Yankee  statesmanship,  and  the  world  is 
asked  to  applaud  it. 

But  it  is  in  the  atrocious  warfare  of  the  enemy  that  we  find 
the  most  striking  instances  of  his  exclusion  of  that  noble 
spirituality  common  to  the  great  conflicts  of  civilized  nations, 
and  the  most  characteristic  evidence  of  the  brutal  selfishness 
of  his  hostilities.  The  Yankee  has  never  shown  mercy  in  this 
war,  and  not  one  touch  of  refinement  from  his  hand  has  re 
lieved  its  horrors.  The  track  of  his  armies  has  been  marked 
by  the  devouring  flame,  or  by  the  insatiate  plunder  and  horrid 
orgies  of  a  savage  and  cowardly  foe.  The  weed-growth  of 
Louisiana,  where  once  flourished  the  richest  plantations  of  the 
South;  the  desert  that  stretches  from  the  Big  Black  to  the 


may  choose  to  exercise  it.  Any  portion  of  such  people  that  can,  may  revolu 
tionize,  putting  down  a  minority  intermingled  with  or  near  about  them,  who 
may  oppose  them." 

In  1860,  the  New  York  Tribune  declared:  "Whenever  a  portion  of  this 
Union  large  enough  to  form  an  independent,  self-sustaining  nation  shall  see  fit 
to  say  authentically  to  the  residue,  '  We  want  to  get  away  from  you,'  we  shall 
say — and  we  trust  self-respect,  if  not  regard  for  the  principle  of  self-govern 
ment,  will  constrain  the  residue  of  the  American  people  to  say — Go !  " 

At  the  beginning  of  the  secession  movements,  Secretary  Seward  used  the 
following  language  to  Mr.  Adams,  the  United  States  Minister  at  London  : 
"For  these  reasons  he  would  not  be  disposed  to  reject  a  cardinal  dogma  of 
theirs  (the  Secessionists),  namely,  that  the  Federal  Government  could  not  re 
duce  the  seceding  States  to  obedience  by  conquest,  even  although  he  were  dis 
posed  to  question  that  proposition.  But  in  fact  the  President  willingly  accepts 
it  as  true.  Only  an  imperial  or  despotic  government  could  subjugate  thorough 
ly  disaffected  and  insurrectionary  members  of  the  State.  This  Federal  Repub 
lican  system  of  ours  is,  of  all  forms  of  government,  the  very  one  most  unfitted 
for  such  a  labor." 


298  THE  THIRD  YEAR  OF  THE  WAR. 

Mississippi,  once  a  beautiful  expanse  of  happy  homes ;  the 
black,  mangled  belt  of  territory  that,  commencing  at  Harper's 
Ferry,  extends  to  Fortress  Monroe,  bound  like  a  ghastly  pall 
with  the  silver  fringe  of  the  Potomac  ;  these  are  the  hideous 
monuments  of  partial  conquest  which  the  Yankee  has  com 
mitted  to  the  memory  of  the  world  and  to  the  inscriptions  of 
history.  What  has  been  safe  in  this  war  from  the  grasp  of  his 
plunder  or  the  touch  of  his  desecration  ?  In  the  districts  of  the 
Confederacy  where  his  soldiers  have  penetrated  they  have  ap 
propriated  or  destroyed  private  property  ;  they  have  stolen 
even  works  of  art  and  ornament ;  they  have  plundered  churches ; 
they  have  desecrated  the  grave  and  despoiled  the  emblems 
which  love  has  consecrated  to  honor.  And  all  this  has  been 
done  according  to  a  peculiar  theory  of  hostilities  which  makes 
of  war  a  sensual  selfishness,  and  contemplates  its  objects  as  a 
savage  gain  of  blood  and  plunder.  This  is  the  true  and  char 
acteristic  conception  of  the  Yankee.  He  is  taught  by  his  po 
litical  education,  by  his  long  training  in  the  crooked  paths  of 
thrift,  that  all  the  principles  of  civilized  usage  are  to  be  set  at 
nought,  when  convenience  and  present  policy  interfere  with 
their  fulfilment. 

It  is  in  this  sense  of  narrow,  materialistic  expediency  that 
the  Yankee  has  surrendered  his  liberties  in  this  war,  and  pro 
claimed  the  enormous  doctrine,  that  the  Constitution  under 
which  he  lives,  and  all  his  other  monuments  of  liberty,  are 
suspended  by  the  paramount  necessity  of  conquering  and  de 
spoiling  the  South.  He  has  carried  his  commercial  politics  into 
the  war,  and  trades  his  own  liberties  for  the  material  rewards 
of  an  otherwise  vain  and  fruitless  conquest. 

But  we  leave  the  subject  of  the  Yankee  to  turn  to  the  other 
side  of  the  question,  and  inquire  what  new  political  ideas  the 
South  has  developed  in  this  war.  Here  is  an  extraordinary 
blank.  In  the  new  government  of  the  Confederacy  we  do  not 
discover  any  statesmanship,  any  financial  genius,  any  ideas  be 
yond  what  are  copied  from  the  old  effete  systems  that,  it  was 
thought,  the  revolution  replaced.  There  must  be  some  expla 
nation  of  this  absence  of  new  ideas,  this  barren  negation  in  our 
revolution. 

By  a  misfortune,  not  easily  avoided,  the  new  government  of  the 
Confederacy  fell  into  the  hands  of  certain  prominent  partisans,  but 


THE  THIRD  TEAK  OF  THE  WAR.  299 

mediocre  politicians,  who  made  a  servile  copy  of  the  old  Yankee 
Constitution  ;  who  had  no  ideas  of  political  administration 
higher  than  the  Washington  routine  ;  and  who,  by  their  igno 
rance  and  conceit,  have  blindfolded  and  staggered  the  revolu 
tion  from  its  commencement.  This  observation  gives  the  key 
to  the  political  history  of  the  Confederacy  in  this  war.  A  ser 
vile  copy  of  old  political  ideas,  an  ape  of  the  "Washington  ad 
ministration,  without  genius,  without  originality,  rejecting  the 
counsels  of  the  intelligent,  and  living  in  its  own  little  circle  of 
conceit,  the  Confederate  government  has  fallen  immeasurably 
below  the  occasion  of  this  revolution,  and  misrepresents  alike 
its  spirit  and  its  object. 

But  this  weak,  negative  government  of  the  Confederacy  is 
but  the  early  accident  of  this  revolution  ;  and  the  people  en 
dure  the  accident  of  their  present  rulers  merely  from  patriotic 
scruples  which  contemplate  immediate  exigencies.  We  stand 
but  on  the  threshold  of  this  revolution,  and  the  curtain  falls 
over  a  grand  future  of  new  ideas.  Those  who  expect  that  it 
will  terminate  with  the  mere  formality  of  a  treaty  with  the 
public  enemy,  and  that  we  shall  then  have  a  plodding  future 
of  peace,  a  repetition  of  old  political  ideas  and  manners,  have 
got  their  pleasant  philosophy  from  newspaper  articles  and 
street  talk ;  they  have  never  read  the  exalted  and  invariable 
lesson  of  history,  that,  on  commotions  as  immense  as  this  war — 
no  matter  what  its  particular  occasion — there  are  reared  those 
new  political  structures  which  mark  the  ages  of  public  progress. 
If  it  was  true  that  this  war,  with  its  immense  expenditures  of 
blood  and  treasure,  was  merely  to  determine  the  status  of 
negroes  in  the  South — merely  to  settle  the  so-called  Slavery 
question — there  is  not  an  intelligent  man  in  the  Confederacy 
but  would  spit  upon  the  sacrifice.  If  it  was  true  that  this  ter 
rible  war  was  merely  to  decide  between  two  political  adminis 
trations  of  the  same  model,  then  the  people  of  the  Confederacy 
would  do  right  to  abandon  it. 

Political  novelty  will  come  soon  enough:  it  is  the  inevitable 
ofispring  of  such  commotions  as  this  war.  "We  repeat,  that  the 
Confederacy  is  now  barren  of  political  ideas,  because  those  who 
are  accidentally  its  rulers  are,  without  originality  or  force, 
copyists  of  old  rotten  systems,  and  the  apes  of  routine  ;  and 
because  the  public  mind  of  the  South  is  now  too  forcibly  en- 


300  THE  THIRD  YEAR  OF  THE  WAK. 

grossed  with  the  publie  enemy,  either  to  replace  their  authority 
or  to  chastise  their  excesses.  It  is  under  these  peculiar  re 
straints  that  the  Confederacy  has  produced  such  little  political 
novelty  in  this  war. 

But  the  revolution  is  not  yet  past.  Those  exalted  historical 
inspirations,  which,  with  rapt  souls  and  kindled  blood,  we  read 
in  the  printed  pages  of  the  past,  are  this  day,  with  trumpet 
sound,  at  our  doors.  We  live  in  great  times ;  we  are  in  the 
presence  of  great  events ;  we  stand  in  the  august  theatre  of  a 
national  tragedy.  This  struggle  cannot  pass  away,  until  the 
great  ideas,  which  the  public  danger  alone  holds  in  abeyance, 
have  found  a  full  development  and  a  complete  realization ; 
until  the  South  vindicates  her  reputation  for  political  science 
and  eliminates  from  this  war  a  system  of  government  more 
ingenious  than  a  Chinese  copy  of  Washington. 

But  while  \ve  thus  reflect  upon  the  intellectual  barrenness  of 
this  war,  we  must  not  forget  that,  while  the  Confederacy  in 
this  time  has  produced  but  few  new  ideas,  it  has  brought  out 
troops  of  virtues.  In  this  respect,  the  moral  interest  of  the  war 
is  an  endless  theme  for  the  historian  ;  and  we  may  be  pardoned 
for  leaving  our  immediate  subject  to  say  a  few  words  of  those 
fields  of  grandeur  in  which  the  Confederacy  has  found  com 
pensation  for  all  other  short-comings,  and  stands  most  conspic 
uous  before  the  world. 

We  have  put  into  the  field  soldiers  such  as  the  world  has 
seldom  seen — men  who,  half-clothed  and  half-fed,  have,  against 
superior  numbers,  won  two-thirds  of  the  battles  of  this  war. 
The  material  of  the  Confederate  army,  in  social  worth,  is  sim 
ply  superior  to  all  that  is  related  in  the  military  annals  of  man 
kind.  Men  of  wealth,  men  accustomed  to  the  fashions  of  polite 
society,  men  who  had  devoted  their  lives  to  learned  professions 
and  polished  studies,  have  not  hesitated  to  shoulder  their  mus 
kets  and  fight  as  privates  in  the  ranks  with  the  hard-fisted  and 
uncouth  laborer,  no  less  a  patriot  than  themselves.  Our  army 
presents  to  the  world,  perhaps,  the  only  example  of  theoretical 
socialism  reduced  to  practice  it  has  ever  seen,  and  realizes,  at 
least  in  respect  of  defensive  arms,  the  philosopher's  dream  of 
fraternal  and  sympathetic  equality. 

The  hero  of  this  war  is  the  private  soldier :  not  the  officer 
whose  dress  is  embroidered  with  lace,  and  whose  name  gar- 


THE  THIRD  YEAR  OF  THE  WAR.  301 

nishes  the  gazette,  but  the  humble  and  honest  patriot  of  the 
South  in  his  dirt-stained  and  sweat-stained  clothes,  who  toils 
through  pain  and  hunger  and  peril ;  who  has  no  reward  but  in 
the  satisfaction  of  good  deeds ;  who  throws  his  poor,  unknown 
life  away  at  the  cannon's  mouth,  and  dies  in  that  single  flash 
of  glory.  How  many  of  these  heroes  have  been  laid  in  un 
marked  ground — the  nameless  graves  of  self-devotion.  But 
the  ground  where  they  rest  is  in  the  sight  of  Heaven.  Noth 
ing  kisses  their  graves  but  the  sunlight ;  nothing  mourns  for 
them  but  the  sobbing  wind  ;  nothing  adorns  their  dust  but  the 
wild  flowers  that  have  grown  on  the  bloody  crust  of  the  battle 
field.  But  not  a  Southern  soldier  has  fallen  in  this  war  with 
out  the  account  of  Heaven,  and  Death  makes  its  registry  of 
the  pure  and  the  brave  on  the  silver  pages  of  immortal  life. 

It  is  said  that  some  of  our  people  in  this  war  have  cringed 
beneath  disaster,  and  compromised  with  misfortune.  These 
are  exceptions :  they  may  be  sorrowful  ones.  But  in  this  war 
the  people  of  the  Confederacy,  in  the  mass,  have  shown  a  for 
titude,  an  elasticity  under  reverse,  a  temperance  in  victory,  a 
self-negation  in  misfortune,  a  heroic,  hopeful,  patient,  enduring, 
working  resolution,  which  challenge  the  admiration  of  the 
world.  It  is  not  only  material  evils  which  have  been  thus 
endured :  the  scourge  of  tyranny,  the  bitterness  of  exile,  the 
dregs  of  poverty.  But  the  most  beautiful  circumstance  of  all 
is  the  strange  resignation  of  our  people  in  that  worst  trial  and 
worst  agony  of  war — the  consignment  of  the  living  objects  of 
their  love  to  the  bloody  altars  of  sacrifice.  These  are  the  real 
horrors  of  war,  and  patriotism  has  no  higher  tribute  to  pay 
than  the  brave  and  uncomplaining  endurance  of  such  agony. 

How  have  we  been  resigned  in  this  war  to  the  loss  of  our 
loved  ones !  How  many  noble  sorrows  are  in  our  hearts ! 
How  many  skeletons  are  in  our  closets  !  War  may  ruin  and 
rifle  the  homestead  ;  may  scatter  as  chaff  in  the  wind  the  prop 
erty  of  years  ;  may  pronounce  the  doom  of  exile — but  all  these 
are  paltry  afflictions  in  comparison  with  the  bereavement  of 
kindred,  whose  blood  has  been  left  on  the  furze  of  the  field  and 
the  leaves  of  the  forest,  and  whose  uncoffined  bones  are  scat 
tered  to  the  elements. 

The  virtues  and  passions  of  the  South  in  this  war  are  not 
idle  sentimentalisms.  They  are  the  precursors  of  new  and  illus- 


302  THE  THIRD  YEAR  OF  THE  WAR. 

trious  ideas — the  sure  indications  of  a  new  political  growth. 
Ii*  the  warmth  of  such  passions  are  born  noble  and  robust  ideas. 
Thus  we  await  the  development  of  this  war  in  ideas,  in  politi 
cal  structures,  in  laws,  which  will  honor  it,  and  for  which  we 
shall  not  unduly  pay  the  dreadful  price  of  blood. 

It  is  impossible  that  a  nation  should  have  suffered  as  the 
South  has  in  this  struggle;  should  have  adorned  itself  with 
such  sacrifices  ;  should  have  illustrated  such  virtues,  to  relapse, 
at  the  end,  into  the  old  routine  of  its  political  existence.  "We 
have  not  poured  out  our  tears — we  have  not  made  a  monu 
ment  of  broken  hearts — we  have  not  kneaded  the  ground  with 
human  flesh,  merely  for  the  poor  negative  of  a  peace,  with 
nought  higher  or  better  than  things  of  the  past.  Not  so  does 
nature  recompense  the  martyrdom  of  individuals  or  of  nations : 
it  pronounces  the  triumph  of  resurrection. 

We  believe  that  a  new  name  is  to  be  inscribed  in  the  Pan 
theon  of  history  ;  not  that  of  an  old  idolatry.  All  now  is  ruin 
and  confusion,  but  from  the  scattered  elements  will  arise  a  new 
spirit  of  beauty  and  order.  All  now  is  dark,  but  the  cloud  will 
break,  and  in  its  purple  gates  will  stand  the  risen  Sun. 


THE  THIRD  YEAR  OF  THE  .WApt   t   ,  ^  ^  -   303 

ft 


AE  Tfffft  A  R  Y 

UNIVERSITY  OF 

CALIFORNIA. 


BATTLE  OF   THE  WILDERNESS.* 


FIELD  OP  THE  BATTE  OP  THE  NY,) 
May  18,  1864.     y 

THE  works  occupied  by  Lee's  army  on  the  Kapidan  extend 
ed  on  the  right  three  miles  below  Raccoon  ford.  Ewell's 
corps  and  Hill's  lay  behind  those  defences,  and  stretched  out 
on  each  side  of  Orange  Court-house,  along  a  line  of  twenty 
miles.  Longstreet,  having  returned  from  Eastern  Tennessee, 
occupied  the  country  around  Gordonsville,  thirteen  miles 
southwest  of  the  position  on  the  Kapidan.  Such  had  been  the 
disposition  of  the  army  of  Northern  Virginia  during  the  latter 
part  of  April. 

Grant,  having  declined  to  assail  Lee's  front,  determined  to 
turn  it  by  a  movement  on  that  officer's  right.  He  inarched 
eastwardly  from  his  cantonments  in  the  country  of  Culpepper; 
and,  having  reached  that  river  seven  miles  lower  down,  at 
Germania  ford,  and  also  seven  miles  still  lower  down,  at 
Ely's  ford,  crossed  the  Rapidan.  The  campaign  in  Northern 
Virginia,  fraught,  as  it  was,  with  the  fate  of  the  Confederate 
States  and  the  United  States,  took  thus  its  initial  form  on  the 
3d  of  May. 

From  Orange  Court-house  two  roads — the  turnpike  and  the 
plank  road — run  on  a  line  somewhat  north  of  east  to  Freder- 
icksbnrg.  Those  two  routes  are  in  general  parallel.  The 
plank  road  consists  of  one  track  of  worn  planking,  and  another 
of  earth  ;  its  course,  very  irregular,  vibrates  in  and  out  on  the 
south  side  of  the  generally  straight  line,  known  as  the  turn 
pike.  A  plank  way  runs  from  Culpepper  Court-house  to  Ger 
mania  ford.  Extending  south-easterly,  it  crosses  the  turnpike; 
arid  after  a  route  of  four  or  five  miles  beyond  that,  terminates 
on  the  Orange  and  Fredericksburg  plank-road.  Beside  these 
main  lines  several  others  traverse  the  country  around  the 

*  We  insert  here  the  London  Herald  correspondent's  account  of  the  Battle 
of  the  Wilderness. 


304:  THE    THIRD    YEAR    OF    THE    WAR. 

battle-field  of  the  Wilderness — some  pursuing  a  course  par 
allel  with  these,  some  crossing  them  more  or  less  transverely. 

Grant's  columns  advanced  from  the  Rapidan  on  the  3d  of 
May.  That  which  inarched  from  Ely's  ford  followed  an 
earthen  way,  leading  to  the  junction  of  the  Orange  and  Fred- 
erfcksburg  plank-road  with  the  plank-road  extending  from 
Culpepper  Court-house,  by  way  of  Germania  ford ;  while  the 
other  column  moved  down  the  latter  route  to  the  same  point. 
That  junction  once  gained,  not  only  had  the  position  of  Lee  on 
the  Rapidan  been  turned,  but  several  roads  to  Richmond 
would  have  been  laid  open. 

Swell's  corps  having  been  encamped  on  Lee's  right,  moved 
eastwardly  on  the  4th.  A  few  of  his  brigades  remained  be 
hind  for  a  day  guarding  some  of  the  fords  across  the  Rapidan. 
Johnson's  division,  having  the  advance,  followed  the  turnpike, 
and  encamped  for  the  night  within  three  miles  of  a  stream 
flowing  northwardly — Wilderness  Run ;  Rodes,  next  in  the 
order  of  march,  lay  in  his  rear  along  the  same  route ;  and 
Early,  who  had  moved  from  Swell's  left  at  Sumerville  ford, 
encamped  for  the  night  a  little  behind  Locust  Grove.  The 
Second  corps  had  thus  reached,  on  the  night  of  the  4th,  a  po 
sition  from  which  it  stood  ready  to  strike  on  the  following 
morning  the  flank  of  Grant's  column  of  advance. 

Johnson  moved  with  his  division  at  the  head  of  Ewell's 
corps  on  the  5th.  Having  thrown  skirmishers  out  into  the 
woods  on  either  side  of  the  turnpike  he  discovered  those  of  the 
enemy  at  about  six  o'clock  in  the  morning.  The  musketry  on 
each  side  deepening,  he  pressed  forward  with  General  J.  M. 
Jones's  brigade  to  gain  a  hill  in  his  front ;  and  having,  after 
a  brief  struggle,  driven  back  a  heavy  line  of  sharpshooters 
from  that  position,  proceeded  to  form  his  troops  in  line  of 
battle. 

The  thicket  on  all  sides  of  the  two  armies  excluded  the  use 
of  artillery,  save  only  for  the  width  of  the  turnpike.  Jones's 
brigade  had  been  formed  but  a  moment  across  that  road  when 
the  enemy  advanced  in  what  of  order  is  practicable  in  a 
tangled  forest.  He  approached  with  a  heavy  line  of  skir 
mishers,  followed  by  a  solid  column  extending  across  the 
whole  of  Lee's  front,  four  lines  deep.  Stewart's  and  Stafford's 
brigades  proceeded  to  form  rapidly  on  Jones's  left.  To  guard 


THE  THIRD  TEAK  OF  THE  WAR.  305 

against  the  danger  of  an  overlapping  breadth  of  attack,  the 
brigade  of  General  Walker,  which,  having  nursed  the  genius 
of  Jackson,  is  known  as  the  "  Stonewall,"  formed  at  some  dis 
tance  from  Stafford's  left  flank,  covering  it  by  a  front  at  right 
angles  to  that  officer's  line.  In  this  position  the  division  of 
General  Edward  Johnson,  of  Ewell's  corps,  stood  on  the 
morning  of  the  5th  to  receive  the  enemy's  onslaught. 

Johnson's  skirmishers  were  driven  in.  Those  of  the  enemy 
took  position  in  the  advancing  column.  The  Fifth  corps  of 
the  Federal  army,  accompanied  by  two  pieces  of  artillery,  that 
came  thundering  along  the  turnpike,  assailed  the  Confederate 
line  at  the  intersection  of  that  road.  Receiving,  as  it  ad 
vanced,  a  terrible  fusilade  without  any  sign  of  wavering,  the 
rear  ranks  pressing  forward  those  of  the  front,  the  attacking 
masses  delivered  from  a  forest  of  rifles  a  fast  and  furious  fire 
upon  Johnson's  line.  Closing  in  upon  it  with  great  spirit  in 
front,  and  threatening  to  envelop  it  on  its  right,  they  suc 
ceeded,  after  a  brief  struggle,  in  forcing  back  part  of  the  bri 
gade  that  had  been  formed  across  the  turnpike — that  of  Gen 
eral  J.  M.  Jones.  Two  of  his  regiments — the  Twenty-first 
Virginia,  commanded  by  Colonel  Witcher,  and  the  Twenty- 
fifth  by  Colonel  Higginbotham — holding  their  ground  reso 
lutely.  Jones  strove  in  desperation  to  rally  his  broken  troops. 
Threatening,  entreating,  shaming,  were  of  no  avail  in  arresting 
their  disordered  flight ;  and  as  he  saw  his  men  rushing  from 
the  field  in  hopeless  confusion  he  fell  from  his  saddle  a  bleed 
ing  corpse.  Captain  Early,  of  his  staff,  unwilling  to  desert 
him,  had  but  a  few  moments  previously  wheeled  his  horse 
from  its  retreat ;  but  only  to  share  with  his  gallant  chief, 
while  in  the  act,  the  same  red  burial. 

Stewart  moved  from  his  position  in  the  line  of  battle  to  close 
the  gap  left  in  it  by  the  brigade  of  Jones.  As  the  Federal 
masses  poured  through,  his  men  rushed  forward  with  a  cheer ; 
and,  driving  them  back  by  the  impetus  of  his  charge,  cap 
tured  their  guns. 

Almost  simultaneous  with  the  first  signs  of  weakness  in 
Jones's  line,  Daniel's  brigade  of  North  Carolinians,  and  Gor 
don's  brigade  of  Georgians,  both  of  Rodes'  division,  were 
placed  rapidly  in  line  upon  the  right.  Ordered  immediately 
afterward  by  General  Ewell  to  charge,  Gordon,  holding  com- 

20 


306  THE  THIRD  YEAE  OF  THE  WAK. 

mand  of  the  movement,  crushed  through  the  enemy's  first 
lines  and  captured  as  he  went  forward  a  whole  regiment,  men, 
officers,  and  colors.  Driving  onward  furiously  he  struck  back 
the  Federal  front  in  confusion  upon  its  supports ;  and  scatter 
ing  both  like  leaves  before  a  storm,  forced  them  off  the  field 
in  utter  route  for  a  mile  and  a  half.  His  front  thus  cleared, 
Gordon  found  the  enemy's  lines  firm  on  both  of  his  wings. 
Dividing  his  men  into  two  bodies  he  formed  them  at  right  an 
gles  to  the  lines  of  his  original  advance,  and  sending  them 
both  forward  back  to  back,  took  the  masses  on  his  right  and 
on  his  left  in  flank.  Pressing  on  them  so  energetically  as  to 
have  prevented  their  formation  across  either  of  his  lines  of 
movement,  he  swept  them  in  disorder  from  the  Confederate 
front  for  a  width  of  a  mile. 

At  the  moment  of  Gordon's  brilliant  charge  the  enemy  at 
tacked  the  brigade  of  General  Stafford.  A  deadly  conflict  on 
that  part  of  the  field  raged  for  some  time  doubtfully.  The 
marksmanship  of  Stafford's  Louisianians,  however,  shot  truly 
to  the  buckles  of  the  Federal  belts,  and  strewed  the  field  with 
death  and  agony.  Reeling  under  its  deliberate  fire,  the  enemy 
finally  fled,  marking  his  route  with  his  killed  and  wounded, 
and  adding  to  his  other  disasters  the  loss  of  six  hundred  pris 
oners.  In  this  repulse,  however,  the  Confederates  have  to 
mourn  the  loss  of  Brigadier-general  Stafford.  He  fell  mortally 
wounded.  He  had  been  a  planter  of  Louisiana ;  but  having 
gone  through  most  of  the  battles  in  Northern  Virginia,  had  be 
come  an  excellent  officer,  and  was  not  more  beloved  by  his  men 
for  his  gentleness  than  he  was  admired  by  them  for  his  daring. 

Soon  after  the  onslaught  upon  the  Confederate  front  the 
Sixth  corps  of  the  Federal  army  advanced  upon  its  left  flank. 
Coming  up  at  right  angles  to  the  line  of  movement  of  the 
Fifth  corps,  its  skirmishers  were  encountered  by  those  thrown 
out  in  anticipation  of  attack  in  that  direction,  from  the  Stone 
wall  brigade.  Sedgwick,  commanding  this  movement  on 
Johnson's  flank,  soon  afterward  threw  the  whole  weight  of  his 
dense  column  upon  those  stout  souls ;  but,  though  threatening 
to  envelop  it  on  the  left,  failed  to  force  back  the  men  who  had 
learned  heroic  constancy  from  Jackson.  Sorely  pressed,  how 
ever,  Pegram's  Virginians  and  Hays'  Louisianians  deployed 
.rapidly  on  their  left.  Charging  immediately  upon  the  Federal 


THE  THIRD  YEAR  OF  THE  WAR.  307 

* 

right,  those  fresh  troops  drove  it  back.  The  furious  onslaught 
of  Hays'  men  did  not  expend  itself  until  they  had  forced  the 
enemy  to  retreat  in  confusion  for  nearly  a  mile.  In  advance 
of  all  others  on  that  face  of  the  attack,  these  splendid  troops, 
having  left  nearly  one-third  of  their  number  on  the  field,  fell 
back  with  Pegram's  gallant  men  to  the  general  line  of 
battle. 

The  enemy  routed  with  great  slaughter  from  all  points  of 
his  advance,  Ewell  proceeded  to  select  ground  for  the  mor 
row's  battle.  Assisted  by  General  Smith,  of  the  engineers,  he 
reviewed  his  position,  and  proceeded  at  once  to  cover  his  front 
with  a  line  of  fieldworks  and  an  abattis  of  felled  trees.  Skir 
mishing  continued  murderously  outside  the  lines.  Immediately 
before  the  close  of  the  evening,  the  skirmishers  of  General 
Pegram,  on  Johnson's  left,  came  running  in,  and  soon  after 
wards  his  sharpshooters  sprang  back  from  their  rifle-pits  in 
his  immediate  front.  A  column,  three  lines  deep,  moved  upon 
him  from  the  depths  of  the  forest,  and,  firing  heavily  as 
they  came  on,  pressed  towards  his  works  furiously.  His 
staunch  Virginians,  however,  met  the-  attack  resolutely,  and, 
covered  partially  by  their  works,  hurled  volley  after  volley 
in  withering  blasts,  breast  high,  into  its  serried  ranks. 

The  Moloch  of  the  North  had,  however,  not  yet  been  sated. 
In  five  lines  a  column  renewed  the  attack  after  nightfall ;  but 
did  so  without  other  result  than  to  increase  terribly  the  hun 
dreds  of  men  that,  dead  or  dying  outside  the  Confederate 
works,  lay  weltering  in  their  gore.  Pegram  fell  in  this  last 
attack  severely  wounded.  The  repulse  which  he  guided  as  he 
fell,  closed  the  work  of  war  for  the  day  on  the  left,  and  wit 
nessed  the  Confederates  still  in  possession  of  their  improved 
position  and  advanced  lines. 

Hill  was  ordered  to  march,  on  the  4th,  from  Lee's  left. 
Anderson's  division  remained  behind  for  the  time  to  guard 
some  fords  in  its  front;  Heth,  followed  by  Wilcox,  moved 
eastwardly,  through  Orange  Court-house,  along  the  Fredericks- 
burg  plank-road.  The  divisions  of  these  two  officers  bivou 
acked  for  the  night  near  Yerdiersville.  Heth  in  advance,  they 
resumed  their  march  on  the  following  day,  still  pursuing  the 
line  of  the  plank-road. 

The  ring  of  small  arms  on  the  right  announced,  in  the  course 


308  THE  THIRD  TEAR  OF  THE  WAR. 

of  the  morning  of  the  5th,  a  small  cavalr}T  affair  near  the  route 
of  Hill's  column.  The  march  still,  however,  continued,  until  it 
encountered  some  dismounted  cavalry  ;  but  after  a  moment's 
pause,  brushing  those  from  its  way,  still  went  forward.  At 
one  o'clock  musketry  was  again  heard  in  front ;  and,  though  at 
first  thought  to  indicate  the  presence  of  merely  a  party  of  cav 
alry,  proved,  after  some  skirmishing,  to  have  come  from  a  large 
body  of  infantry.  Kirtland's  brigade,  of  Heth's  division,  de 
ployed  immediately  on  both  sides  of  the  plank-road  ;  and  the 
whole  column  proceeded  to  form  in  line  of  battle  on  its  flanks; 
while  the  sharpshooters  of  both  armies  kept  up  in  front  a  de 
sultory  and  somewhat  languid  fire. 

Hill's  advance  followed,  on  the  plank-road,  while  Swell's 
pursued  the  turnpike.  Parallel  lines  in  their  general  direction, 
these  movements  stood  at  the  time  of  the  deployment  of  Mirt- 
land's  brigade,  from  three  to  four  miles  apart.  The  country 
intervening,  and  round  about  for  several  miles,  is  known  as  the 
"  Wilderness,"  and  having  very  few  "  clearings,"  consists 
almost  wholly  of  a  forest  of  dense  undergrowth.  The  enemy, 
apparently  bewildered  by  the  character  of  the  site  of  the  ap 
proaching  conflict,  sent  out  scouts  and  skirmishers  in  every 
direction  from  his  front.  Eight  or  ten  of  these  having  strayed 
in  between  the  column  of  Hill  and  that  of  Ewell,  came  into  an 
open  field  in  which  they  might  have  shot,  as  he  sat  with  Gen 
eral  Hill  and  other  officers  on  the  ground,  that  idol  of  the 
army,  General  Lee.  Those  adventurous  blue-coats,  finding 
themselves  in  front  of  two  brigades  of  Wilcox's  division,  made 
a  rapid  retreat,  ignorant,  most  happily,  that  a  very  precious 
life  lay  for  a  moment  at  the  mercy  of  their  rifles. 

The  interpolation  of  those  skirmishers  between  his  two  col 
umns,  suggested  to  General  Lee  the  necessity  of  opening  com 
munications  with  Ewell.  Captain  Hotchkiss  of  the  engineers 
of  the  Second  corps,  having  come  up  immediately  afterwards, 
indicated  the  route  for  that  purpose ;  and  "Wilcox's  division 
moving  accordingly  to  the  left — having  captured  two  hundred 
of  the  enemy  on  the  way — effected,  after  a  march  of  a  mile 
and  a  quarter,  a  junction  with  Gordon's  brigade,  on  Ewell's 
extreme  right.  The  line  of  battle,  thus  completed,  extended 
from  the  right  of  the  plank-road  through  a  succession  of  open 
fields  and  dense  forest  to  the  left  of  the  turnpike.  It  presented 


THE  THIRD  TEAR  OF  THE  WAR.  309 

a  front  of  six  miles  ;  and,  with  Flat  creek  in  its  rear,  occupied 
a  very  irregular  plane  along  the  broken  slopes  of  a  broad  ridge 
that  rises  from  the  stream  known  as  Wilderness  run.  The 
thicket  that  lay  along  the  whole  face  of  the  Confederate  array 
is  so  impenetrable  as  to  have  excluded  the  use  of  artillery  by 
the  enemy,  save  only  for  the  breadth  of  those  openings  where 
it  is  penetrated  on  the  left  by  the  old  turnpike,  and  on  the 
right  by  the  plank- road. 

The  attack  on  Ewell  having  been  repulsed,  musketry  began 
at  half-past  two  to  deepen  in  volume  in  front  of  Hill.  Large 
columns  of  the  enemy,  enveloped  in  clouds  of  dust,  were  seen 
at  that  time  moving  up  from  the  rear  in  the  direction  of  the 
deafening  fire.  Possession  of  the  intersection  of  the  plank- 
road  from  Ger mania  ford,  with  that  from  Orange  Court-house, 
opening,  as  it  would,  a  favorable  line  for  Federal  advance 
southwardly,  was  shown,  by  the  enemy's  movements,  to  be 
about  to  become  the  subject  of  a  bloody  encounter. 

Heth's  skirmishers  were  driven  in  about  three  o'clock. 
They  were  followed  closely  by  a  heavy  column  that  appeared 
to  move  forward  spiritedly.  Firing  with  great  rapidity  as  it 
advanced,  its  musketry,  in  the  ears  of  a  man  approaching  the 
field  of  battle,  rolled  through  the  depths  of  the  forest  like  the 
roar  of  mighty  waters.  Resolute  defence  on  the  one  hand,  and 
on  the  other  the  attack  that  sought  to  force  its  way  rather  by 
constant  pressure  than  by  dashing  enterprise,  the  struggle  in 
Hill's  front  continued  for  two  or  three  hours,  unbroken  in  its 
terrible  monotony  by  even  any  disturbance  of  the  *apid  regu 
larity  with  which  it  added  to  its  masses  of  grim  death  or  mor 
tal  agoii}^. 

Heth's  division  bore,  at  first,  the  whole  brunt  of  the  Federal 
onslaught.  The  heavy  columns  pressing  so  obstinately  upon 
its  front  failed  to  break  its  heroic  constancy.  Thick  and  fast 
its  men  crept  to  the  rear,  bleeding,  or  dropping  in  the  ranks, 
dead — but  still  it  gave  no  sign  of  yielding.  One-half  of  its 
number  of  the  morning  had  been  placed  hors  du  combat.  The 
weight  of  the  immsense  masses  hurled  against  it  having  excited 
in  Lieutenant-general  Hill  some  fears  for  its  solidity,  orders 
were  sent  to  Wilcox  to  come  up  with  his  division  from  Ewell's 
right,  at  the  double-quick.  That  gallant  officer  arrived  at  four 
o'clock,  while  the  roar  of  the  rifles  in  front,  accompanied  by 


310  THE  THIRD  YEAR  OF  THE  WAR. 

the  thunder  of  four  or  five  guns  on  the  plank-road,  declared 
r  the  combat  to  be  one  of  extraordinary  fierceness. 

Wilcox,  guided  by  the  heaviness  of  the  fire,  placed  his  lead 
ing  brigade  in  rear  of  Heth's  centre,  and  deployed  it  to  the 
right  and  to  the  left  of  the  plank-road.  The  conflict  soon 
afterwards  deepening  in  that  direction,  he  next  formed  his 
second  brigade,  as  it  arrived  upon  the  field,  on  the  left  flank ; 
but  had  no  sooner  drawn  it  up  in  line  of  battle  than  it  became 
exposed  to  musketry  so  completely  in  reverse  as  to  have 
wounded  some  of  his  men  in  the  back.  Changing  front 
instantly  to  the  rear,  and  swinging  round  his  left,  he  found 
himself  confronted  by  a  Federal  line  of  battle. 

Reasoning  from  the  crushing  weight  of  the  musketry  in 
Heth's  front,  Wilcox  drew  up  another  of  his  brigades  in  that 
officer's  rear,  on  the  right  of  the  plank-road.  The  hoarse  roll 
of  the  fire  extending  subsequently  in  that  direction,  he  placed 
his  last  brigade  for  the  protection  of  that  flank,  in  extension  of 
Heth's  array  on  the  extreme  right.  Two  of  "Wilcox's  brigades 
lay  there  in  reserve,  in  rear  of  the  centre,  while  another  occu 
pied  each  of  the  two  flanks  of  the  line  of  battle.  The  terrible- 
ness  of  the  Federal  musketry  at  this  moment  was  such  that, 
having  torn  a  section  of  the  trunk  utterly  to  shreds,  it  actually 
cut  down  a  white  oak-tree  having  a  diameter  of  eighteen 
inches. 

The  losses  in  Heth's  division  had  become  so  heavy  that 
"Wilcox's  brigades  in  reserve  were  moved  at  about  half-past 
five  to  the  front.  McGowan's  South  Carolinians  thus  brought 
into  action,  their  gallant  chief,  impatient  of  delay,  leaped  his 
horse  over  a  rank  that  had  lain  down  to  let  his  men  pass. 
Spurring  forward,  waving  his  sword  as  he  went,  he  was  fol 
lowed  by  his  brigade  with  a  cheer ;  and  plunging  immediately 
into  the  depths  of  thg  conflict,  drove  back  the  enemy  by  his 
impetuous  dash  for  several  hundred  yards.  Wilcox,  seeing 
the  Federal  lines  on  each  side  of  the  breadth  of  that  charge  of 
the  fiery  South  Carolinians  stand  firm,  became  apprehensive 
for  their  safety,  and,  ordering  them  at  once  to  fall  back, 
placed  them  in  the  position  assigned  them  in  the  array  of  bat 
tle.  The  murderous  conflict  raged  in  fierce  monotony  until 
night  closed  over  the  Confederate  line  in  the  position  it  had 
originally  taken.  The  prisoners  captured  included  men  from 


THE  THIRD  YEAR  OF  THE  WAK.  311 

the  Sixth,  the  Second,  and  the  Fifth  corps;  and  this  fact 
points  to  the  supposition  that  the  gallant  divisions  of  Heth  and 
Vilcox  actually  held  at  bay,  from  three  o'clock  until  half-past 
seven,  three  corps  of  the  Federal  army. 

Heth's  division  was  ordered  during  the  night  of  the  5th  to 
go  to  the  rear  as  a  reserve.  Lane's,  Scales's,  McCowan's,  and 
Thomas's  brigades,  constituting  the.  division  of  General  "Wil- 
cox — occupied  the  front.  Yidettes  were  sent  out,  but  ventured 
only  a  short  distance  from  the  line  of  battle.  The  two  armies 
lay,  indeed,  so  close  to  each  other  throughout  the  night  as  to 
be  within  easy  ear-sbot.  A  small  stream  on  the  Confederate 
left  constituted  their  mutual  supply  of  water,  and  was  so  near 
both  that  men  from  either  side  going  out  to  fill  their  canteens 
from  it  were  very  often  captured  by  some  from  the  other. 
Colonel  Baldwin,  of  the  First  Massachusetts  regiment,  more 
thirsty  than  prudent,  became  in  that  way  a  tenant  of  Libby 
prison. 

Longstreet's  corps,  it  will  be  recollected,  lay,  on  the  3d, 
thirteen  miles  southwest  of  the  position  on  the  Rapidan.  Or 
dered  forward  by  General  Lee,  it  inarched  from  the  neighbor 
hood  of  Gordonsville  on  the  morning  of  the  4th.  On  the  night 
of  the  5th  it  halted  within  twelve  miles  of  the  field  of  the  bat 
tle  of  that  day.  Intending  to  follow  a  road  known  as  the 
Catharpen,  with  a  view  to  a  movement  upon  the  enemy's  left 
flank,  it  became  necessary,  under  the  rapid  developments  of 
Grant's  masses  of  attack,  to  call  it  to  the  support  of  the  front. 
Its  intrepid  chief,  informed  after  midnight  of  the  danger  of 
Hill's  corps,  was  ordered  to  move  up  to  the  plank-road,  with 
the  view  of  meeting  the  renewal  of  the  shock  of  the  Fifth  upon 
the  right.  Breaking  up  his  bivouac,  Longstreet  commenced 
his  march  about  2  o'clock  in  the  morning  to  the  field  of  battle. 

General  Lee  concluding,  reasonably,  that  a  feint  upon  the 
left  would  occupy  sufficient  time  to  delay  the  attack  on  the 
right  until  the  arrival  and  deployment  of  Longstreet's  men, 
regarded  the  state  of  things,  on  the  dawn  of  the  6th,  without 
alarm.  Wilcox  had,  however,  looked  anxiously  throughout 
the  night  for  the  coming  of  the  divisions  of  Anderson  and 
Field ;  and,  disappointed  in  the  delay  of  their  arrival,  began 
at  daybreak  to  cover  his  front  by  an  abattis  of  felled  trees. 
The  men  employed  for  that  purpose  were  immediately  fired 


312  THE  THIRD  YEAR  OF  THE  WAR. 

upon  by  the  enemy's  skirmishers ;  and,  in  the  next  moment, 
rushed  to  their  rifles,  before  the  advance  of  an  attack  in  heavy 
column.  The  Federals  had  spent  the  night  in  securing  good 
positions  for  their  onslaught  of  the  morning ;  and,  coming  now 
in  great  force  from  points  threatening  Heth's  and  Wilcox's  en 
velopment,  forced  the  gallant  divisions  of  those  officers  to 
waver.  Shattered  in  strength  by  the  terrible  struggle  of  the 
day  before,  and  having  already  maintained  a  resistance  for 
three-quarters  of  an  hour  against  numbers  absolutely  crushing, 
they  finally  gave  way.  Continuing  at  first  a  desultory  fire  as 
they  retreated,  the  right  wing,  south  of  the  plank-road,  broke 
into  disorder,  and  finally  fled  in  confusion  before  the  enemy's 
overwhelming  columns. 

Wilcox,  seeing  his  lines  shattered  hopelessly,  rushed  back  to 
report  to  General  Hill.  The  Federalists  pressed  forward  so 
vigorously  that  he  had  but  arrived  at  that  point,  when  he 
looked  back,  to  behold  his  disordered  ranks  surging  already 
within  one  hundred  and  fifty  yards  of  the  position  of  General 
Lee.  The  head  of  McLaw's  fine  division  of  Longstreet's  corps 
came  u^  immediately,  under  the  command  of  Brigadier-gen 
eral  Kershaw,  and  so  out-spoken  was  the  augury  of  victory  in 
its  flashing  e}res,  that  its  appearance  bound  up  at  once  the 
wounded  spirits  of  Heth  and  Wilcox,  as  they  writhed  in  the 
presence  of  General  Lee,  under  a  reverse  which  that  officer  de 
clared,  during  the  day,  had  illuminated  their  previous  struggle 
with  unflinching  constancy. 

Apprehension  was  for  a  moment  entertained  that  the  rapid 
movement  and  heavy  fire  of  the  enemy's  advance  would  pre 
vent  the  deployment  of  the  approaching  colums  in  line.  Ker- 
shaw's  own  brigade  of  South  Carolinians  and  Humphrey's 
brigade  of  Mississippians,  having  the  advance  of  Longstreet's 
corps,  had  the  honor  to  be  first  to  form.  Drawing  up  across 
the  plank-road — thus  covering  the  trains,  the  artillery,  and  the 
shattered  retreat  of  Heth  and  Wilcox — they  at  once  checked 
the  enemy's  advance,  in  the  teeth  of  a  fire  in  which  they  stood 
firm,  as  though  it  were  a  storm  of  mere  hail.  Their  resistance, 
it  was,  however,  feared  at  the  time,  could  not  be  maintained 
for  many  minutes.  Their  front  swept  by  a  tempest  of  bullets, 
they  were  threatened,  on  their  right  flank,  with  envelopment. 
Their  heroic  firmness  triumphed,  however;  for  the  ring  of 


THE  THIRD  TEAK  OF  THE  WAK.  313 

their  rifles'  had,  before  long,  whirred  its  death-rattle  in  so 
many  a  Federal  heart,  that  the  assailants  began,  after  a  while, 
to  recoil. 

Other  brigades  having,  in  the  mean  time,  begun  to  drop  into 
line  on  the  right,  the  enemy  was  soon  after  checked  at  all 
points;  and  the  tide  of  battle  commenced,  after  a  short  time, 
to  roll  slowly  back. 

McLaw's  division  once  in  line,  under  Kershaw,  Fields'  men 
formed  on  as  they  came  up.  Anderson's  splendid  fellows,  left 
by  General  Hill  to  guard  fords  in  the  rear  of  the  march  from 
the  Rapidan,  soon  came  in  a  rush,  commanded  by  General  Ma- 
hone;  they  deployed  immediately  in  array  of  battle.  Breadth 
and  weight  thus  given  to  Lee's  front  the  fortunes  of  the  day 
quickly  turned.  The  Confederate  line  moved  majestically  for 
ward  in  the  teeth  of  a  bloody  and  stubborn  opposition.  Gen 
eral  Longstreet  rushed  forward  with  his  staff  to  take  his  place 
at  the  head  of  the  advance ;  and  was  received  as  he  passed 
along  the  moving  mass  with  thunders  of  applause,  General 
Jenkins,  spurring  to  his  side,  grasped  his  hand  in  a  glow  of 
pleasure ;  and  the  whole  scene  was  one  of  universal  rejoicing. 

Their  faces  glowing,  the  horses  prancing,  the  cavalcade  sur 
rounding  the  Lieutenant-General  had,  however,  not  passed 
more  than  a  hundred  yards  in  advance  of  the  column,  when 
their  mood  was  sobered  into  profound  regret.  One  of  the 
brigades  of  the  flanking  force,  heated  with  the  work  of  de 
struction  that  they  had  executed  so  splendidly,  mistook  the 
glad  group  of  horsemen  that  came  prancing  along  the  plank 
road,  for  a  party  of  the  flying  foe.  It  poured  into  them  at 
short  range  a  deadly  fire !  Poor  Jenkins  fell  instantly  from 
his  horse  with  a  bullet  in  his  pulseless  brain  !  An  enthusiastic 
son  of  South  Carolina,  he  was  beloved  by  his  troops  for  his 
fine  qualities,  as  a  man  and  an  officer.  Longstreet  received 
a  ball  that  entered  his  throat  and  passed  out  through  his  right 
shoulder.  Bleeding  like  an  ox,  he  was  helped  from  his  horse 
so  prostrated  that  fears  were  entertained  of  his  immediate 
death.  Major  Walton,  a  gallant  Mississippi^  on  his  staff, 
threw  open  his  vest  and  shirt  collar,  and  founo^  great  relief  in 
discovering  that  he  was  mistaken  in  supposing  that  the  ball 
had  cut  the  carotid  artery.  Placed  on  a  litter  the  wounded 
general  was  removed  from  the  field;  but  feeble  though  he 


314:  THE   THIRD   YEAR    OF   THE   WAR. 

I 

was  from  loss  of  blood,  he  did  not  fail  to  lift  his  hat  from  time 
to  time  as  he  passed  down  the  column,  in  acknowledgment 
of  its  cheers  of  applause  and  sympathy. 

The  column  of  advance  deployed  into  line.  Some  of  Fields' 
and  McLaws'  men  had  already  encountered  and  driven  back 
the  enemy  on  the  left  of  the  plank-road,  when  Anderson's 
division  of  Hill's  corps  was  ordered  to  their  support.  The 
brigade  of  Alabamians  has  illuminated  the  name  of  Wilcox ; 
having  come  up  first  in  the  order  of  march,  it  was  placed  rapidly 
by  its  chief,  General  Perrin,  in  the  position  of  Laws'  brigade 
of  Fields'  division,  its  right  resting  on  the  plank-road.  It  had 
hardly  taken  its  place  when  the  enemy,  who  had  been  previ 
ously  driven  back  in  fine  style  by  Law,  came  up  again,  and, 
under  a  terrible  fire  from  Perrin's  rifles,  retreated  with  pre 
cipitation.  Renewing  his  advance,  he  once  more  emerged 
from  the  forest,  but  contented  himself  with  quick  and  wild  - 
firing,  as  he  lay  down  at  a  distance  of  a  hundred  and  fifty 
yards  from  the  front  of  the  Confederate  line.  The  Federal 
officers  were  heard  at  that  moment  urging  their  men  to  rise 
and  charge.  Their  left  pressed  up  to  within  a  distance  of 
seventy-five  yards,  but  the  deadly  minie  cut  their  close  front 
into  shreds ;  they  fled,  after  a  struggle  of  ten  minutes,  in  utter 
confusion.  Flinging  away  knapsacks,  cartridge  boxes,  mus 
kets,  and  blankets,  the  attacking  party  seemed  stricken  with 
terror,  as  well  it  might  have  been,  in  a  field  where  the  dead 
lay  so  thickly — sometimes  one  upon  another — as  to  have  traced 
out  distinctly  the  line  of  the  array  in  which  they  stood  at  the 
moment  of  their  death. 

A  struggle  equally  sanguinary  with  that  on  the  left  of  the 
plank-road  raged  at  the  same  time  on  its  right.  In  the  mean 
time,  however,  a  force  had  been  sent  out  with  the  design 
of  turning  the  enemy's  flank  on  that  side.  That  move 
ment  was,  however,  found,  after  a  long  march,  to  be 
impracticable.  Triumphant  on  both  sides  of  the  plank-way, 
Lee  decided  on  an  attack  in  front.  Perrin  having  just 
moved  by  the  left  flank  sufficiently  far  to  admit  those 
troops  between  his  right  and  the  plank  road,  Benning's  bri 
gade,  of  Field's  division,  and  Kershaw's,  of  McLaw's  division, 
formed  upon  his  right.  Their  line  extended  from  the  road 
way  at  right  angles.  Perrin  and  Laws  drawn  up  in  array  of 


THE  THIRD  TEAK  OF  THE  WAR.  315 

battle  parallel  with  the  road,  lay,  at  the  moment  of  the  ad 
vance,  transversely  in  the  rear  of  Perrin's  left.  Right  and  left 
of  the  plank-road  the  Confederates  began  to  move  forward. 
Kershaw,  Benning,  and  Perrin,  finding  the  enemy,  pushed  on 
ward,  freely  swinging  around  their  left  somewhat  adventur 
ously  into  the  unknown  depths  of  the  forest  through  which 
they  moved. 

In  the  mean  time  Federal  skirmishers  springing  from  tree  to 
tree  as  they  came  on  with  a  heavy  fire,  drove  in  those  of  Perry 
and  Law.  Followed  in  hot  haste  by  a  blue  line  of  battle,  the 
whole  pressed  back  the  brigades  of  those  officers  with  great 
spirit  towards  the  plank-road.  Alarmed  by  the  firing  going  on 
during  that  movement  in  the  rear  of  his  left,  Perrin  sent  his 
adjutant,  Captain  Wynne,  to  communicate  on  the  subject  with 
General  Harris.  That  gallant  fellow,  seeing  that  no  time  was 
to  be  lost,  rushed  with  his  impetuous  Mississippians  on  the 
face  of  the  advancing  attack  and  succeeded  in  driving  it  back 
handsomely  for  a  sufficient  distance  to  give  protection  to  the 
rear  of  Kershaw  and  Benning.  Perrin — on  the  extreme  left, 
be  it  recollected — stood  still,  exposed  to  imminent  danger. 

As  the  whole  breadth  of  the  line  from  the  plank-way  retired, 
he  endeavored  at  the  same  time  to  swing  back  his  exposed 
wing,  but  found  it  suddenly  enfiladed  by  the  fire  of  the 
enemy's  skirmishers.  His  position  became  critical.  Captain 
"Wynne  led  off  two  regiments  from  the  exposed  flank  ;  and  had 
placed  them  in  position  in  the  rear  just  as  Davis's  fine  brigade 
of  Mississippians  came  sweeping  up  to  complete,  by  connect 
ing  with  Harris's  right,  the  protection  of  the  whole  transverse 
front,  Harris  and  Davis  having  thus  saved,  by  a  timely  move 
ment,  the  three  brigades  on  the  left,  the  artillery  trains,  &c., 
on  that  highway,  and  the  line  of  the  plank-road.  The  enemy 
foiled  in  his  design  fell  back,  after  a  brief  encounter,  from 
their  front.  The  symmetry  of  the  Confederate  line  was  re 
stored,  subsequently  in  the  day,  by  the  disposition  of  Hill's 
whole  corps  on  Longstreet's  right. 

The  forward  movement  progressed  on  the  right  of  the  plank- 
road  while  events  were  thus  threatening  it  on  the  left.  Long- 
street's  men  on  that  part  of  the  field  moved  forward,  went  on 
for  some  distance  without  finding  the  enemy,  until  S.  T.  An 
derson's  brigade  of  Georgians  coming  on,  an  array  of  battle  in 


SI 6  THE   THIRD   TEAR   OF   THE   WAR. 

Federal  blue  rushed  at  it  with  such  impetuosity  as  to  have  be 
come  almost  immediately  master  of  the  fieldworks.  The  sin 
gle  line  of  this  attack  was,  however,  too  weak  to  hold  what  it 
had  so  handsomely  won  ;  and  having  been,  as  is  too  often  the 
case  in  those  apparently  ill-advised  charges  of  the  Confeder 
ates,  unsupported,  was  compelled,  by  the  concentration  of  a 
crushing  force  in  its  front,  to  retire. 

The  work  of  war  on  the  right  was  done.  So  alarming  had 
been  the  aspect  of  the  field  at  one  time  that,  fearing  for  the 
constancy  of  his  troops,  General  Lee  had,  as  Fields '  division 
came  under  fire,  placed  himself  at  the  head  of  Greggs'  brigade 
of  Texans.  Ordering  them,  in  that  devotion  which  constitutes 
the  great  charm  of  his  character,  to  follow  him  in  a  charge 
upon  the  triumphant  line  that  came  sweeping  down  upon  him 
over  the  debris  of  Hetli's  and  Wilcox's  divisions,  Longstreet 
protested  against  such  an  exposure  of  a  life  so  valuable.  A 
grim  and  ragged  soldier  of  the  line  raised  his  voice  in  deter 
mined  remonstrance,  and  was  immediately  followed  by  the 
rank  and  file  of  the  whole  brigade  in  positive  refusal  to  ad 
vance  until  their  beloved  general-in-chief  had  gone  to  his 
proper  position  in  the  rear. 

Yielding  to  their  touching  solicitude,  and  thus  terminating 
one  of  the  most  remarkable  incidents  in  the  war,  General  Lee 
retired,  and  well  did  Gregg's  gallant  fellows  fulfil  the  promise 
by  which  they  urged  his  withdrawal,  by  rushing  wildly  for 
ward  through  a  tempest  of  bullets  with  a  fury  which  nothing 
could  withstand.  All  the  ground  that  had  been  lost  was  re 
covered,  the  enemy  driven,  routed,  into  his  intrenchments,  the 
Confederate  lines  advanced  threateningly  so  far  as  to  hem  him 
closely  in,  and  thus,  almost  hopeless  as  its  fortunes  at  one  time 
appeared  to  be,  the  second  day  of  the  battle  of  the  Wilderness 
terminated  around  the  Southern  Cross  of  the  right  wing  in 
bloody  triumph. 

The  6th  of  May  opened  on  E well's  front  with  Rodes'  divi 
sion  on  the  right  of  the  turnpike,  Johnson's  on  the  other  side 
of  that  road,  and  Early's  still  to  the  left.  In  the  morning  a 
column  of  attack  came  up  in  front  of  Fegram's  brigade,  and  oi 
part  of  Johnson's  division ;  and  attempting  to  force  its  way, 
pressed  that  part  of  the  line  heavily.  Reinforced  by  a  few 
regiments  from  Gordon's  brigade,  the  Confederates,  with  un- 


THE  THIRD  YEAR  OF  THE  WAR.  317 

flinching  solidity,  hurled  the  onslaught  back,  mangled  and 
bleeding.  Again,  however,  and  yet  again,  the  obstinate  masses 
renewed  their  advance,  until,  the  line  of  their  movement 
strewed  thickly  with  the  evidences  of  the  terrors  in  their  way, 
they  finally  shrank  from  an  encounter  that  had  proved  so  dis 
astrous. 

The  battle  on  the  left  appeared,  after  the  repulse  of  the 
morning,  to  hang  fire.  Direct  advance  so  sternly  repelled,  the 
enemy  determined  to  make  a  movement  on  Ewell's  flank. 
Wilcox's  division  having  been  withdrawn  the  day  before  for 
the  support  of  Heth,  the  two  wings  of  Lee's  army  continued 
still  unconnected;  and  through  the  space  thus  open  Burnside 
moved  a  force  at  about  two  o'clock,  with  the  view  of  crushing 
our  line  from  right  to  left.  Ewell,  who  is  gifted  with  the  in 
stincts  of  a  military  genius,  stood,  however,  prepared  at  all 
points.  As  the  flanking  force  of  the  enemy  came  up,  moving 
perpendicularly  to  Rodes'  line  of  battle,  a  battalion  of  sharp 
shooters,  from  Ramsaur's  brigade  of  North  Carolinians,  follow 
ing  their  bold  commander,  Major  Osborne,  had  the  audacity 
to  charge  a  whole  division  of  the  Federal  army.  A  whole 
division  of  the  Federal  army  advancing  on  that  handful  of  men, 
fled  before  Osborne's  fellows  at  the  top  of  their  speed,  leaving 
behind  it  in  its  flight  all  its  knapsacks,  and  as  many  as  fifteen 
hundred  of  its  muskets.  Burnside's  movement  against  Ewell's 
right  flank,  thus  defeated  by  an  amusing  boldness,  a  repetition 
of  such  an  enterprise  was  prevented  by  an  immediate  junction 
with  the  line  of  battle  that  had  just  been  restored  on  the  right 
wing. 

The  extreme  left  was  held  by  the  Georgians  of  General  Gor 
don.  Our  line  at  that  part  of  the  field  extended  beyond  the 
enemy's  right  for  the  width  of  a  brigade-front.  Gordon,  an^ 
ious  to  employ  this  advantage,  urged  that  he  be  allowed  to  use 
it  for  a  moment  against  the  Federal  flank.  Ewell  and  Early 
yielding  to  his  repeated  representations,  finally  gave  him  the 
order  to  move.  The  sun  was,  however,  at  that  instant,  about 
to  set ;  and  but  a  limited  time  remained,  therefore,  for  the  ex 
ecution  of  an  enterprise  so  important.  But  Gordon's  men 
moved  briskly  out  of  their  works ;  and,  forming  at  right  angles 
to  their  previous  position,  moved  forward  in  line  of  battle,  sup 
ported  by  K.  D.  Johnston's  brigade  of  JSTorth  Carolinians.  In 


318  THE  THIRD  YEAR  OF  THE  WAR. 

complete  surprises  they  struck  the  enemy's  flank;  and  crush 
ing  his  array  as  they  swept  forward  majestically,  drove  every 
thing  before  them  like  chaff  before  the  wind.  Brigade  after 
brigade  fled  from  the  Federal  works,  and,  attempting,  one  after 
another,  to  wheel  around  into  line  in  order  to  check  the  ad 
vance,  was  borne  back  under  the  rapidity  of  Gordon's  move 
ment  before  the  seething  mass  that  struggled  down  upon  it  in 
litter  rout. 

Gordon  swept  all  before  him  for  a  distance  along  the  enemy's 
line  of  two  miles.  The  forest  through  which  he  advanced  was 
so  dense  with  undergrowth,  that  by  the  setting  in  of  nightfall 
he  had  become  separated  from  his  supports.  Pegram's  bri 
gade  paused,  however,  after  nightfall,  upon  his  left.  He  paused 
before  he  had  completed  a  movement  that,  if  undertaken  ear 
lier  in  the  day,  would  have  completely  routed  at  least  the 
Federal  right.  The  enterprise,  notwithstanding  its  incomplete-, 
ness,  was  crowned  with  brilliant  success.  The  Confederate 
loss  in  that  service  numbered,  in  killed  and  wounded,  but 
twenty-seven.  To  the  enemy,  the  results  involved  terrible 
slaughter.  Four  hundred  Federalists  were  buried  next  day  in 
the  ground  over  which  that  admirable  movement  had  been 
made. 

The  field  for  two  miles  in  extent  was  strewn  with  trophies, 
flung  wildly  away — knapsacks,  blankets,  cartouche-boxes,  cook 
ing  utensils,  and  even  large  supplies  of  abandoned  rations. 
The  route  was  one  of  indescribable  panic.  The  woods  in  front 
were  alive  with  masses  of  men  struggling  to  escape  with  life. 
The  Sixth  corps  of  the  Army  of  the  Potomac  was  so  com 
pletely  broken  up  that,  unable  to  restore  its  spirit,  Gordon 
bivouacked  for  the  night  in  its  immediate  front,  in  undisturbed 
Depose.  A  brilliant  stroke  thus  closed  on  Ewell's  front  the 
second  day  of  the  battle  of  the  Wilderness  in  a  crowning 
triumph. 

Victory  smiled  during  the  night  of  the  6th  of  May  on  the 
warriors  that  lay  sleeping,  from  right  to  left,  behind  Lee's 
works.  The  losses  of  the  Confederates  in  killed,  wounded,  and 
missing,  do  not  exceed,  for  the  two  days,  six  thousand. 

The  results  to  the  enemy  in  some  parts  of  the  field  cannot  be 
described  by  any  word  less  forcible  than  massacre.  Eleven 
hundred  and  twenty-five  Federal  dead  were  buried  in  front  of 


THE  THIRD  YEAR  OF  THE  WAR.  319 

EwelPs  line  lying  to  the  left  of  the  turnpike.  Five  hundred 
more  were  buried  on  the  right  of  that  road ;  and,  in  addition 
to  about  one  hundred  dead  officers,  whose  bodies  must  have 
been  removed,  the  number  of  corpses  lying  on  the  field,  within 
range  of  the  enemy's  sharpshooters,  is  estimated  at  fully  three 
hundred.  The  Federal  killed  in  the  struggle  on  the  right  may, 
therefore,  be  declared  positively,  to  number  as  many  as  two 
thousand.  I  have  no  data  on  which  to  estimate  the  breadth  of 
the  slaughter  in  the  fierce  conflicts  of  the  right ;  but  from  the 
stubbornness  and  volume  of  these,  feel  quite  confident  that  they 
must  have  added  to  the  slain  as  awful  an  account  as  that  ren 
dered  in  front  of  Ewell.  With  three  thousand  prisoners  and 
four  thousand  dead,  the  usual  proportion  of  six  or  seven  to  one 
for  the  wounded,  would  show  that  the  losses  of  Grant  in  the 
battle  of  the  Wilderness,  cannot  have  been  less  than  thirty 
thousand  men. 

General  Lee  in  attempting  to  lead  Gregg's  Texans  into  the 
jaws  of  death,  has  given  history  a  striking  proof  of  the  attach 
ment  of  his  troops  to  his  person.  The  world  did  not,  however, 
want  any  evidence  of  his  own  devotion  ;  and  can  hardly  fail  to 
pronounce  judgment  against  his  course  on  that  occasion  as  one 
of  rashness.  His  exposure  during  the  present  campaign  has 
been  so  unusual,  and  apparently  so  unnecessary,  as  to  have 
impressed  his  troops  with  profound  concern.  The  explosion  of 
a  shell  under  his  own  horse,  the  killing  of  the  horse  of  his  Ad- 
jutant  General,  Lieutenant-colonel  Taylor,  and  the  wounding  of 
another  officer  attached  to  his  person,  Lieutenant-colonel  Mar 
shall,  have  had  the  depressing  effect  of  a  deep  anxiety  on  the 
morale  of  his  army.  The  President,  sharing  the  general  appre 
hension  in  and  out  of  the  field  for  the  safety  of  General  Lee, 
has,  I  am  glad  to  say,  written  to  him  a  touching  letter  of 
remonstrance.  The  relations,  private  and  public,  of  the  two 
men,  will,  no  doubt,  give  great  weight  to  that  protest,  notwith 
standing  it  comes  from  a  man  who,  though  charged  in  a  strug 
gle  for  all  that  is  dear  to  a  freeman  with  the  fate  of  millions, 
had,  under  an  error  of  his  own  devotion,  but  just  returned 
from  alarming  exposure  to  the  terrible  missiles  that  screamed, 
and  burst,  and  crashed  in  thunder-claps  around  Drury's  Bluff. 


APPENDIX., 


UNIVERSITY  OF 

CALIFORNIA. 


LIBRARY 

;  UNIVERSITY  OF 

CALIPOHNL 

APPENDIX. 


JAIL  JOUMAL  OF  THE  AUTHOR 

IN 

FORT  WARREN,  ETC. 


THE  author  of  the  foregoing  work  was  captured  by  the  enemies  of  his 
country,  on  his  way  to  Europe.  A  brief  record  of  his  captivity — an  unvar 
nished  writing  in  a  jail — will  not  be  an  inappropriate  appendix  to  the  fore 
going  pages ;  and  he  thinks  it  may,  also,  be  a  valuable  illustration  of  some 
opinions  in  this  volume,  and  an  exhibition  of  moral  aspects  of  the  war, 
which  are,  indeed,  the  most  interesting  part  of  its  history. 

No  one  can  justly  charge  the  writer  with  attempt  at  any  base  gratifica 
tion  in  libel  or  abuse  in  the  following  pages.  He  leaves  such  resources  of 
revenge  to  the  baser  of  his  enemies;  and  he  challenges  every  man  who  re 
spects  the  freedom  and  honesty  of  literature,  to  say  whether  in  these  pages 
he  has  been  insensible  even  to  one  glimpse  of  kindness  in  his  prison,  or  has 
done  more  than  refuse,  for  any  interest  or  convenience,  to  compromise 

THE    TRUTH. 


CHAPTER  I. 

EUNNING  THE  BLOCKADE.— The  "  Greyhound." — Passing  the  Blockade  Lines. — The 
Capture. — Yankee  Courtesy. — Off  Fortress  Monroe. 

"  RUNNING  THE  BLOCKADE"  to  Europe,  is  a  pleasant  thought 
to  one  in  Richmond ;  the  imagination  of  an  adventure  at  the 
end  of  which  are  golden  visions  and  that  beatitude  which  may 
be  summed  up  in  "plenty  to  wear  and  to  eat."  The  first 
stage  of  the  adventure  brings  one  to  Wilmington  ;  and  here  he 
already  finds  in  the  luxurious  cabins  of  the  blockade-runners 
the  creature-comforts  to  which  he  has  long  been  a  stranger  in 


324:  THE    THIRD   YEAR   OF   THE   WAR. 

the  Confederate  capital,  and  has  a  foretaste  of  some  of  the 
sweets  of  his  adventure. 

Oranges,  which,  if  they  existed  in  Richmond,  would  be  tick 
eted  in  some  Jew's  window  at  twenty  dollars  apiece;  pineap 
ples,  with  their  forgotten  fragrance;  wines  and  liquors,  of 
which  we  have  only  the  poisoned  imitations  in  Richmond ; 
and  an  array  of  cut  and  stained  glass-ware  that  would  have 
put  to  the  blush  the  stock  of  all  the  hotels  in  the  Confed 
eracy  (I  had  been  eating  and  drinking  out  of  tin  at  the  Wil 
mington  hotel),  were  set  out  with  a  bewildering  profusion 
in  the  cabin  of  the  "  Greyhound,"  when  I  called  to  make  my 
respects  to  Captain  "Henry"  and  concluded  my  arrangements 
for  passage  out  to  Bermuda.  "What  a  splendid  fellow  he  was : 
a  graceful  dash  of  manner,  which  yet  beamed  with  intelligence, 
an  exuberant  hospitality,  a  kindness  that  when  it  did  a  grate 
ful  thing  so  gracefully  waived  all  expressions  of  obligation.  < 
He  had  been  all  over  the  world  ;  was  familiar  with  the  great 
capitals  of  Europe ;  bore  the  marks  of  a  wound  obtained  in 
the  campaign  of  Stonewall  Jackson  ;  and  as  to  his  name  and 
nationality  —  why,  passengers  on  blockade-runners  are  not 
expected  to  be  inquisitive  of  these  circumstances,  and  must 
beware  of  impertinent  curiosity. 

"  Want  to  get  out  on  the  Greyhound  ?  Why,  certainly  ; 
shall  be  very  glad  to  have  you  ;"  and  the  captain  blew  his 
piratical  silver  whistle,  and  his  clerk  had  soon  noted  my 
height,  color  of  my  eyes,  &c.,  for  the  Confederate  officer,  who 
was  to  come  aboard  next  morning  to  muster  crew  and  passen 
gers  and  see  that  no  conscripts  made  an  unticketed  exit  from 
Wilmington. 

[The  reader  must  understand  that  on  vessels  running  the 
blockade  there  is  no  accommodation  for  passengers,  unless  in 
the  contracted  space  of  the  captain's  own  cabin ;  hence,  passen 
gers  are  taken  only  by  extraordinary  favor.] 

What  a  contrast  was  the  ready  consent  of  Captain  "  Henry," 
an  enure  stranger,  to  the  negatives  and  quibbles  of  others. 
For  there  are  in  Wilmington  specimens  of  the  Southern  Yan 
kee  :  men,  as  we  have  seen  them  in  Richmond,  whose  swollen 
wealth,  and  beefy  vulgarity,  and  insatiable  avarice,  number 
them  with  that  brood  of  moral  bastardy.  Two  officers  of  the 
volunteer  navy  of  the  Confederacy,  who  desired  passage  to 


APPENDIX.  325 

proceed  to  a  most  important  rendezvous,  in  urgent  interests  of 
the  public  service,  were  ruthlessly  disappointed,  because  they 
could  not  manage  to  pay,  for  a  seventy  hours'  passage  to  Ber 
muda,  four  hundred  dollars  in  gold — eight  thousand  in  the 
currency  of  the  Confederacy. 


On  the  night  of  the  9th  of  May,  the  Greyhound  was  lying 
off  Fort  Fisher,  the  signal-men  blinking  at  each  other  with 
their  lights  in  sliding  boxes.  It  was  necessary  to  get  a  dispen 
sation  from  the  fort  for  the  Greyhound  to  pass  out  to  sea,  as  no 
less  than  three  fugitive  conscripts — "stow-aways" — had  been 
found  aboard  of  her.  Two  of  them  were  discovered  on  search 
ing  the  vessel  at  Wilmington.  But  lower  down  the  stream 
the  vessel  is  overhauled  again,  and  goes  through  the  process 
of  t\\Q  fumigation  of  her  hold  to  discover  improper  passengers. 
In  the  case  of  the  Greyhound,  to  the  intense  disgust  of  the 
captain,  and  execrations  of  the  crew,  the  process  brought  to 
light  an  unhappy  stow-away,  who  was  recognized  as  a  liquor- 
dealer  of  Wilmington,  arid  made  no  secret  of  his  design  to  flee 
the  conscription.  After  the  threat,  and  apparently  serious 
preparations,  to  throw  him  overboard,  the  stow-away  was,  no 
doubt,  relieved  to  find  himself  taken  ashore  to  the  comparative 
mercies  of  the  enrolling  officer. 

At  last  we  are  off.  The  moon  is  down  ;  steward  has  had 
orders  to  kill  the  geese  and  shut  up  the  dog ;  the  captain  has 
put  on  a  suit  of  dark  clothes;  every  light  is  extinguished, 
every  word  spoken  in  a  whisper,  and  the  turn  of  the  propeller 
of  the  Greyhound  sounds  like  the  beat  of  a  human  heart. 
There  is  an  excitement  in  these  circumstances.  The  low,  white- 
gray  vessel  glides  furtively  through  the  water,  and  you  catch 
the  whispered  commands  of  the  captain  :  "  Stead-ey,''  and  then 
the  more  intense  and  energetic  whisper :  "  Black  smoke,  by 
G — ;  cut  off  your  smoke."  Every  eye  is  strained  into  the 
shadows  of  the  night.  But  how  utterly  useless  did  all  this 
precaution  and  vigilance  appear  on  the  Greyhound ;  for 
after  two  hours  of  suspense  we  were  out  of  the  blockade  lines, 
and  had  seen  nothing  but  the  white  caps  of  the  waves.  A 


326  THE  THIRD  YEAR  OF  THE  WAR. 

blockade  for  blockheads,  surely,  I  thought,  as  I  composed  my- 
,  self  to  sleep,  dismissing  entirely  from  my  mind  all  terrors  of 
the  Yankee. 


It  was  about  two  o'clock  the  next  day,  and  the  Grey 
hound  was  about  one  hundred  and  fifty  miles  out  at  sea, 
when  the  lookout  reported  a  steamer  astern  of  us.  The  day 
was  hazy,  and  when  the  vessel  was  first  descried,  she  could  not 
have  been  more  than  five  or  six  miles  astern  of  us.  For  a  few 
moments  there  was  a  sharp  suspense  ;  perhaps  the  steamer  had 
not  seen  us ;  every  one  listened  with  breathless  anxiety,  as  the 
tall  fellow  at  the  mast-head  reported  the  discoveries  he  was 
making,  through  his  glasses,  of  the  suspicious  vessel.  "  He  is 
bearing  towards  a  bark,  sir ;"  and  for  a  few  moments  hope 
mounted  in  our  hearts  that  we  might  not  have  been  observed, 
and  might  yet  escape  into  the  misty  obscurity  of  the  sea.  In 
vain.  "  He  is  a  side-wheel  steamer,  and  is  bearing  directly 
for  us,  sir."  "  Give  her  her  way,"  shouted  the  captain  in  re 
sponse  ;  and  there  was  a  tumultuous  rush  of  the  crew  to  the 
engine-room,  and  the  black  smoke  curling  above  the  smoke 
stack  and  the  white  foam  in  our  wake  told  plainly  enough 
that  the  startled  Greyhound  was  making  desperate  speed. 

But  she  was  evidently  no  match  for  the  Yankee.  We  were 
being  rapidly  overhauled,  and  in  something  more  than  an 
hour  from  the  beginning  of  the  chase  a  shell  from  the  Yankee 
vessel,  the  "  Connecticut,"  was  whistling  over  our  bows.  The 
crew  became  unruly;  but  Captain  "Henry,"  revolver  in  hand, 
ordered  back  the  man  to  the  wheel,  declaring  "  he  was  master 
of  his  vessel  yet."  The  mate  reported  that  a  very  small  crew 
appeared  to  be  aboard  the  Yankee.  "  Then  we.  will  fight  for 
it,"  said  the  captain.  But  the  madness  of  such  a  resolution 
became  soon  manifest :  for  as  the  Connecticut  overhauled 
us  more  closely,  her  decks  and  wheel-houses  were  seen  to  be 
black  with  men,  and  a  shell,  which  grazed  our  engine,  warned 
us  that  we  were  at  the  mercy  of  the  enemy.  But  for  that 
peculiar  nuisance  of  blockade-runners — women  passengers — 
the  Greyhound  might  have  been  burnt,  and  the  last  duty  per 
formed  in  the  face  of  the  rapacious  enemy. 


APPENDIX.  327 

Dizzy,  and  disgusted  with  sea-sickness  ;  never  supposing  that 
a  vessel  which  had  passed  out  of  the  asserted  lines  of  blockade 
without  seeing  a  blockader,  withaut  being  pursued  from  those 
lines,  and  already  far  out  on  th'e  sacred  highway  of  the  ocean, 
and  flying  the  British  ensign,  could  be  the  subject  of  pirati 
cal  seizure ;  never  dreaming  that  a  simple  Confederate  passen 
ger  could  be  the  victim  of  human  kidnapping  on  the  high  seas, 
outside  of  all  military  and  territorial  lines,  I  had  but  a  dim  ap 
preciation  of  the  excited  scenes  on  the  Greyhound  in  the 
chase.  Papers,  memoranda,  packages  of  Confederate  bonds, 
were  ruthlessly  tossed  into  the  purser's  bag  to  be  consumed  by 
the  flames  in  the  engine-room  ;  the  contents  of  trunks  were 
wildly  scattered  over  the  decks ;  the  white  waves  danced  with 
ambrotypes,  souvenirs,  and  the  torn  fragments  of  the  large 
package  of  letters,  missives  of  friendship,  records  of  affection, 
which  had  been  entrusted  to  me,  and  which  I  at  last  unwill 
ingly  gave  to  the  sea. 

Here,  at  last,  close  alongside  of  us,  in  the  bright  day,  was 
the  black  guilty  thing,  while  from  her  sides  were  pushing  out 
boats,  with  well-dressed  crews  in  lustrous  uniforms  and  officers 
in  the  picturesqueness  of  gold  and  blue — a  brave  sight  for 
grimy  Confederates  !  The  Greyhound  was  no  sooner  boarded, 
than  an  ensign,  who  had  his  hair  parted  in  the  middle,  and 
his  hands  encased  in  lavender-colored  kids,  came  up  to  me 
and  asked  me  with  a  very  joyous  air  how  many  bales  of  cotton 
were  on  board  the  vessel.  I  afterwards  understood  that,  from 
my  disconsolate  looks,  he  had  taken  me  to  be  the  owner  of  the 
cotton,  and  was  probably  desirous,  by  his  amiable  question,  to 
give  a  sly  pinch  to  my  misery. 


These  plain  records  of  experience,  which  are  memorable  in 
my  life,  would  have  no  value  for  me,  and  would,  indeed,  be 
despicable  scribblings,  if  they  did  not  contain  the  truth.  Where 
there  is  any  fact  in  these  experiences  to  the  enemy's  credit  I 
shall  not  suppress  it ;  he  shall  not  only  have  the  benefit  of  it, 
but  my  grateful  acknowledgements  ;  for  I  am  too  proud  of  the 


328  THE  THIRD  YEAR  OF  THE  WAR. 

reputation  of  Confederates  for  candor  and  sensibility  to  kind 
ness  to  risk  it  for  the  miserable  gratification  of  writing  a  libel 
for  popular  passion. 

I  shall  ever  retain  a  pleasant  and  grateful  recollection  of  the 
treatment  I,  in  common  with  all  the  prisoners,  obtained  on 
board  the  Connecticut,  and  the  humane  courtesy  of  her  com 
mander,  John  J.  Almy.  I  had  all  the  accommodations  and 
attentions  usually  given  to  a  passenger,  was  provided  with  a 
state-room,  took  my  meals  in  the  ward-room,  and — what  was 
the  most  grateful  surprise  of  all — never  had  my  ear  assailed 
with  the  epithet  of  "  rebel,"  or  any  of  the  dirty  phrases  which 
I  had  supposed  to  be  common  in  Yankee  conversation  when 
ever  it  alluded  to  the  Confederacy.  I  was  told  by  those  who 
had  more  experience  in  the  matter  than  myself  that  the  officers 
of  the  old  navy  of  the  United  States  are  remarkable  for  their 
decorous  manners  towards  prisoners,  and,  in  this  respect,  pre 
sented  a  striking  contrast  to  the  coarse  vulgarity  of  the 
Yankee  army. 


On  the  bright  twelfth  of  May,  the  Connecticut  was  mov 
ing  up  the  estuary  of  the  James  from  Fortress  Monroe  to  New 
port  News.  The  men-of-war  and  iron-clads  which  thronged 
the  stream  afforded  an  exhibition  of  the  enemy's  naval  power, 
which  made  us  smile  to  think  how  little  all  this  brave  show  of 
ribbed  guns  and  armaments  had  accomplished  against  the 
stark  spirit  and  beggarly  resources  of  those  who  fight  for 
liberty. 

The  pilot  who  boarded  us  off  the  Capes  (a  fellow  with  a  bil 
ious  skin  and  greased  hair,  who  claimed  to  be  from  Maryland), 
brought  a  wonderful  story  of  the  progress  of  the  war  in  Vir 
ginia.  "  The  New  York  Herald  had  news  as  big  as  his  fist : 
Beauregard's  army  cut  in  two ;  Lee  on  a  foot-race  to  Kich- 
mond  ;  ahead,  everywhere,"  etc.  I  had  heard  such  stuff  be 
fore,  and  having  had  some  experience  of  dissecting  Yankee 
lies  with  pen  and  scissors,  was  not  easily  imposed  upon  by 
the  pilot's  resurrection  of  such  from  the  columns  of  New  York 
journals. 


APPENDIX.  329 

At  our  mess  in  the  ward-room,  a  fellow-prisoner  was  tempt 
ed  to  ask  the  pilot  if  there  were  any  Yirginia  pilots  employed 
in  the  bay  or  river.  "  Not  one,"  was  the  fellow's  reply  ;  and 
a  flush  of  shame  might  have  passed  on  his  cheek  on  observing 
the  proud  and  meaning  glance  which  three  of  the  prisoners, 
Virginians,  exchanged  at  the  announcement.  I  had  heard  be 
fore  that  the  Virginia  pilots,  without  a  solitary  exception,  had 
abandoned  their  livelihoods  and  professions,  spurning  the 
temptations  of  the  enemy  and  the  gains  they  might  have  made 
from  dishonor ;  but  here  was  the  unquestionable  testimony  of 
their  self-sacrifice  from  the  lips  of  an  enemy  and  a  rival.  I 
do  not  know  that  the  State  of  Virginia  has  ever  done  anything 
for  these  noble  men,  turned  adrift  from  their  employment, 
many  of  them  I  know  earning  scanty  bread  about  Kichmond, 
by  the  pitiable  shifts  of  the  refugee.  Surely,  such  sacrifices 
as  they  have  made  should  be  gratefully  recognized,  and,  as  far 
as  possible,  rewarded  ;  for  they  are  another  public  decora 
tion  of  the  honor  of  the  "  Old  Dominion  "  in  this  war. 


330  THE  THIKD  YEAK  OF  THE  WAB. 


CHAPTER  H. 

CURIOSITIES  OB-  THE  YANKEE  BLOCKADE. — Correspondence  with  Lord  Lyons,  &c. 

MY  sense  of  the  personal  kindness  of  Captain  Almy  and  his 
officers  certainly  did  not  disturb  my  conviction  that  the  Con 
necticut  had  done  a  monstrous  wrong,  and  that  these  persons 
were  the  instruments  of  a  despotism  at  Washington,  that, 
among  other  indignities  of  the  war,  was  imposing  upon  the 
world  the  monstrous  lie  of  a  blockade,  which  was,  in  fact,  an 
ill-disguised  system  of  piracy. 

There  were  in  my  mind  certain  questions  touching  the  prac 
tical  conduct  of  that  blockade,  which  I  was  satisfied  had  not 
been  pressed  upon  the  attention  of  European  Governments ; 
which  made  what  lawyers  call  "  a  case  "  for  the  Greyhound, 
and  which  might  possibly  result,  through  the  timely  and  deter 
mined  protests  of  some  one,  in  the  rescue  of  the  vessel  from 
her  captors.  I  determined  to  risk  my  liberty  in  the  attempt 
to  make  the  issue.  I  had  my  opportunity  of  escape  in  sup 
pressing  my  name  and  keeping  quiet ;  but  my  convictions  of 
justice  to  the  vessel,  and  my  confidence  in  the  eventual  tri 
umph  of  principles,  determined  me  to  risk  my  case,  not  on  a 
disguise,  but  on  the  truthful  grounds  that  myself  and  vessel 
were  legally  exempt  from  capture.  I  had  already  written  to 
Lord  Lyons  claiming  my  release,  and  having  resolved  to  make 
a  similar  issue  for  the  vessel,  I  avowed  to  Captain  Almy  the 
necessity  of  my  being  sent  to  Boston,  where  the  prize  proceed 
ings  were  to  be  held,  to  make  the  proper  protests  in  behalf 
and  in  the  interest  of  the  owners  of  the  Greyhound.  I  was 
sent  on  board  the  Greyhound,  and  soon  secured  the  means 
of  a  free  -communication  in  my  own  name  and  that  of  the  Cap 
tain  with  Lord  Lyons:  the  result,  a  correspondence  which 
must  here  anticipate  my  narrative  of  events.  Little  did  I 
know  what  that  correspondence  was  to  cost  me  in  the  resent 
ment  of  the  Washington  Government ;  for  in  it  I  had  pre- 


APPENDIX. 

sumed  to  denounce  the  cheat  of  the  blockade,  and  to  attempt 
to  rescue  from  Yankee  clutches  a  prize  worth  scarcely  less  than 
a  million  of  dollars.  What  I  was  to  endure  for  the  temerity 
will  follow  in  the  course  of  the  narrative,  which  the  corres 
pondence  below  anticipates,  inserted  here,  if  of  no  other  inter 
est,  as  an  independent  chapter  on  the  curiosities  of  the  Yankee 
Blockade. 


1. 


ON  BOARD  U.  S.  STEAMEE  CONNECTICUT, 

At  Sea,  May  11,  1864. 

LOED  LYONS,  Envoy  Extraordinary  and  Minister  Plenipotentiary  for  Her 
Britannic  Majesty,  near  "Washington,  United  States  : 

MY  LORD  :  I  have  respectfully  to  represent  to  you  that  I  was 
arrested  yesterday  on  the  high  seas,  by  the  United  States 
steamer  Connecticut,  from  the  deck  of  the  British  steamer 
Greyhound,  in  which  I  was  a  passenger  for  Bermuda,  en  route 
for  England, — the  Greyhound,  at  the  time  of  capture,  being 
about  one  hundred  and  fifty  miles  out  at  sea,  and  flying  the 
British  ensign.  Having  passed  out  of  the  lines  of  blockade, 
and  of  contested  territorial  jurisdiction,  my  right  as  a  passen 
ger  became,  as  I  conceive,  analagous  and  tantamount  to  those 
of  asylum  under  the  British  flag,  and,  in  this  respect,  Unvote 
its  protection,  and  that  I  may  be  permitted  to  pursue  my  way 
to  England. 

I  was  on  board  the  Greyhound  in  the  simple  and  exclusive 
character  of  a  passenger.  When  arrested  there  on  the  high 
seas,  I  was  proceeding  to  England  to  fulfil  an  engagement  for 
a  literary  work  on  the  Confederate  States,  &c.,  with  publish 
ers  in  London,  who  had  already  printed  two  volumes  I  had 
composed  of  a  similar  nature  ;  and  also  to  discharge  a  private 
and  domestic  duty  in  visiting  the  relatives  of  my  wife,  who  is 
a  native  of  England  and  a  subject  of  Her  Britannic  Majesty. 
I  am  not  connected  with  the  military  service  of  the  Confeder 
ate  States,  and  am  charged  with  no  public  office  or  trust  on 
their  behalf.  These  facts  may  be  readily  established  by  appro 
priate  evidence ;  ar^d  in  consideration  of  them,  I  submit  to 
your  Lordship  that,  if  interposition  be  necessary,  I  may  be 


332  THE  THIRD  YEAR  OF  THE  WAR. 

protected  in  those  very  obvious  rights,  which  I  invoke  in  the 
character  of  an  innocent  passenger  on  the  high  seas,  under  the 
British  flag. 

I  have  the  honor,  &c., 

Your  obedient  servant, 

EDWARD  A.  POLLAED. 


II. 

ON  BOARD  BRITISH  STEAMER  GREYHOUND, 

NEW  YORK,  May  16,  1864. 
LORD  LYONS,  Envoy  Extraordinary,  &c.,  near  Washington,  D.  0. 

MY  LORD  :  The  Greyhound,  on  which  I  am  now  held  as  pris 
oner,  having  been  ordered  to  Boston,  and  stopping  here  to  coal, 
I  take  the  opportunity  to  enclose  to  your  Lordship  the  dupli 
cate  of  a  former  letter,  written  while  I  was  a  prisoner  on  board 
the  U.  S.  Steamer  Connecticut,  and  placed  in  the  hands  of 
Commander  John  J.  Almy,  commanding  said  steamer,  for 
transmission :  using  the  opportunity  thus  to  insure  communi 
cation. 

It  is,  doubtless,  unnecessary  to  encumber  the  statement  I 
have  already  submitted  to  your  Lordship  with  any  argument. 
But  there  is  one  view  of  the  matter  which  it  may  not  be  un 
necessary  or  presumptuous  to  bring  to  your  Lordship's  atten 
tion. 

It  must  frequently  happen  (as  it  has  occurred  in  my  case) 
that  the  Confederate  States,  from  obvious  considerations  of  mili 
tary  prudence,  deny  all  communications  through  the  United 
States,  or  other  adjoining  territory,  by  land,  and  that,  then,  the 
only  possible  mode  of  egress  is  by  sea  on  vessels  which  pass 
through  the  line  of  blockade.  If,  on  board  of  one  of  these 
vessels,  which  carried  the  British  flag,  and  had  passed  out  of 
the  jurisdiction  claimed  by  the  United  States,  I  was  not  pro 
tected  from  arrest,  then  it  follows  that  the  passenger  (be  he 
Englishman  or  Confederate)  is  made  the  victim  of  a  necessity 
which  he  could  not  avoid,  and  for  which  he  is  not  responsible. 
Such  a  rule  would  involve  the  rights  of  your  own  countrymen, 
my  Lord,  and  any  passenger,  whose  misfortune  it  was  that  he 
could  not  get  out  of  the  Confederate  States,  without  crossing 
the  ocean,  might  be,  after  he  had  passed  out  of  the  lines  of 


APPENDIX.  333 

contested  territorial  jurisdiction,  hunted  on  the  high  seas  as 
lawful  prize,  and  be  at  the  mercy  of  any  arbitrary  arrest. 

I  did  not  take  passage  on  board  the  Greyhound  out  of  the 
port  of  Wilmington,  until  I  had  ascertained  to  my  satisfaction 
that  she  was  a  lona-fide  British  vessel,  having  undertaken  the 
single  voyage  in  which  she  was  captured,  under  a  charter  party, 
and  entitled  to  carry  the  British  flag,  at  least  so  far  as  to  pro 
tect  passengers,  subject  only  to  the  risk  of  capture  within  the 
territorial  limit  asserted  by  the  United  States.  I  trust  that 
my  circumspection  in  this  matter  has  not  been  without  avail, 
and  that,  having  sought  the  protection  of  the  British  flag,  in 
good  faith,  and  with  an  innocent  purpose,  I  may  speedily  realize 
it  through  the  offices  of  your  Lordship. 

I  have  the  honor  to  renew  my  respects. 

Your  obedient  servant, 

EDWD.  A.  POLLAKD. 

m. 

ON  BOARD  STEAMER  GREYHOUND,         ) 
At  Sea,  May  14,  1864.   \ 

LORD  LYONS,  Envoy  Extraordinary,  &c.,  for  Her  Britannic  Majesty,  near 
Washington,  United  States. 

MY  LORD  :  I  am  now  held  as  prisoner  on  board  the  British 
steamer  Greyhound,  which  is  claimed  as  a  prize  by  the  U.  S. 
Steamship  Connecticut,  and  is  ordered,  as  I  am  informed,  to 
the  port  of  Boston,  where  proceedings  will  be  taken  for  her 
condemnation.  The  circumstances  under  which  the  Grey 
hound  was  captured  are  peculiar,  and  involve  a  question  of 
the  most  obvious  interest  and  gravest  import  to  Her  Majesty's 
Government,  and  to  the  right  of  property  in  her  subjects. 

The  Greyhound  was,  in  good  faith,  and  in  all  respects,  a 
British  vessel,  and  had  been  chartered  at  Bermuda  to  take  out 
from  the  port  of  Wilmington  certain  private  cotton  purchased 
and  paid  for  by  subjects  of  Great  Britain,  and  held  exclusively 
on  their  own  account.  Not  one  pound  of  this  cotton  belonged 
to  any  citizen  of  the  Confederate  States;  nor  did  any  such 
citizen  have  any  interest  whatever  in  the  vessel  or  her  venture. 
Your  Lordship  will  be  easily  able  to  determine  from  the  ship's 
papers,  and  all  other  circumstances,  that  the  nationality  of  the 
Greyhound  was  not  a  disguise — an  adopted  convenience  for 


334:  THE   THIRD    YEAR   OF   THE    WAR. 

running  the  blockade — but  was  in  all  respects  a  true  and  un 
affected  claim  on  the  part  of  her  owners. 

At  the  time  of  the  capture  of  the  Greyhound,  on  the  10th 
instant,  she  was  in  lat.  33  degs.,  10  min.,  15  sec.,  and  long.  75 
degs.,  47  min.,  45  sec.  West,  one  hundred  and  twenty-five 
miles  from  the  nearest  land,  flying  the  British  ensign.  She 
had  passed  out  to  sea  from  the  port  of  Wilmington  without 
seeing  a  Federal  cruiser,  and  without  any  visible  evidence  of  a 
blockade.  But  even  if  that  blockade  had  existed,  and  was 
something  more  than  a  vicious  fiction,  by  which  Federal  cruis 
ers,  instead  of  picketing  the  coast,  are  permitted  to  take  easjr 
prizes  on  the  high  seas,  I  submit  to  your  Lordship  that  the 
Greyhound,  having  once  passed  out  the  territorial  limit,  and 
flying  the  British  flag,  not  for  the  purposes  of  concealment, 
but  by  clear  title  of  right,  could  not  be  outlawed  on  the  high 
seas,  and  took  the  risks  of  blockade  only  within  the  territorial 
jurisdiction  claimed  by  the  United  States.  Any  other  rule 
would  extend  the  jurisdiction  of  the  United  States  over  the 
high  seas,  and  the  flag  of  Her  Majesty's  Government  carried 
there  by  a  clear  title  in  the  vessel  to  fly  it,  would  afford  no 
protection. 

As  another  circumstance  of  illegality  in  the  capture  of  the 
Greyhound — indeed,  I  may  say  as  one  of  wholly  unnecessary 
indignity — I  have  further  to  state  to  your  Lordship,  that  when 
the  vessel  had  been  brought  to  Newport  News,  the  Commo 
dore  present,  the  senior  officer  commanding  the  Federal  squad 
ron,  commanded  the  British  flag  on  my  vessel  to  be  hauled 
down,  and  the  Federal  flag  to  be  hoisted  in  its  place.  There 
is  certainly  no  shadow  of  right  for  such  a  proceeding,  until  the 
vessel  is  condemned  in  due  course  of  law ;  ,and  of  the  spirit  of 
an  act,  where  the  law  and  the  rule  of  propriety  which  it  equally 
offends  are  both  so  plain,  your  Lordship  will  doubtless  have 
no  difficulty  in  judging. 

Trusting  that  the  rights  of  the  owners  of  the  Greyhound, 
which  I  am  left  for  the  present  to  represent,  will  receive  the 
attention  of  your  Lordship,  and  having  every  confidence  in 
your  Lordship's  sensibility  to  whatever  touches  the  rights  and 
honor  of  Her  Majesty's  Government, 

I  have  the  honor,  &c.,  your  obedient  servant, 

GEORGE  HENRY,  Master  of  the  Greyhound. 


APPENDIX.  335 


IY. 

BRITISH  LEGATION,  WASHINGTON,  D.  0.,  May  20,  1864. 

SIR  :  It  is  the  usual  and  correct  practice  that  the  master  and 
one  or  more  of  the  other  persons  taken  on  board  a  neutral 
vessel  captured  for  breach  of  blockade,  should  be  sent  in  the 
vessel  to  a  port  of  the  captor,  in  order  that  their  evidence  may 
be  taken  in  the  case ;  but  if  such  persons  be  neutral,  they 
ought  to  be  released  as  soon  as  they  have  given  their  evidence, 
and  their  evidence  ought  to  be  taken  without  unnecessary 
delay. 

I  have  written  to  the  Secretary  of  State  of  the  United 
States  to  express  my  hope  that  you  will  be  set  free  immediately 
after  your%vidence  has  been  taken ;  and  I  beg  of  you  to  lose 
no  time  in  informing  me,  if  this  be  not  done. 

I  have  also  applied  to  the  Secretary  of  State  of  the  United 
States  for  the  release  of  those  of  the  officers  and  crew  of  the 
Greyhound,  who  were  taken  out  of  the  vessel,  and  who  have,  I 
am  sorry  to  say,  been  detained  as  prisoners  at  Camp  Hamilton, 
near  Fortress  Monroe. 

I  am,  Sir,  your  obedient  servant, 

LYONS. 
E.  A.  POLLAED,  Esq. 

Y. 

BOSTON,  May  26,  1864. 

LOED  LYONS,  Envoy  Extraordinary,  &c.,  for  Her  Britannic  Majesty,  near 
Washington,  United  States : 

MY  LORD  :  I  have  been  detained  here  as  a  prisoner  one  week 
to-day ;  notwithstanding  the  notification,  under  date  of  20th 
instant,  with  which  your  Lordship  obliged  me,  to  the  effect 
that  you  had  applied  to  the  Secretary  of  State  of  the  United 
States  for  my  release. 

There  are  two  points  in  my  case,  which  I  beg  to  bring  to 
your  attention  again  in  a  precise  and  brief  recapitulation. 

1.  The  Greyhound  had  passed  out  of  the  port  of  Wilming 
ton,  without  sight  of  a  blockading  vessel,  and  was  taken  by  a 
cruiser  about  one  hundred  and  fifty  miles  out  at  sea.  I  desire 


336  THE  THHtD  YEAR  OF  THE  WAR. 

to  put  the  question  to  your  Lordship,  if  the  government  at 
Washington  can  so  change  its  tactics  of  blockade  as  to  omit 
an  efficient  guard  of  the  coast,  and  take  up  vessels  which  have 
come  out  of  Confederate  ports  by  fast-sailing  cruisers  on  the 
ocean  highway ;  for  such  I  was  informed,  by  an  officer  of  the 
U.  S.  steamer  Connecticut,  was  the  recently  adopted  and  easy 
plan  of  taking  prizes,  the  fruits  of  which  your  Lordship  may 
have  observed  in  the  capture  of  four  vessels  as  prizes  in  a  sin 
gle  week,  each  taken  far  out  on  the  high  seas.* 

2.  The  Greyhound  was  thoroughly  a  British  vessel ;  the 
British  flag  she  carried  was  not  a  decoy,  and  that  flag  covered 
me,  after  I  had  passed  out  of  the  territorial  jurisdiction  of  the 
United  States,  and,  even  in  case  it  did  not  protect  vessel  or 
cargo  (granting,  for  argument,  these  to  be  of  an  illicit  character) 
protected  me  as  an  innocent  passenger  ;  else,  having  no  other 
egress  from  the  Confederate  States,  the  passenger  would  be  the 
victim  of  his  necessity  ;  and,  else  again,  if  a  citizen  of  the  Con 
federate  States,  not  contraband,  could  be  outlawed  on  the  high 
seas,  under  that  flag,  flying  on  a  bona  fide  British  vessel,  why 
not  a  subject  or  citizen  of  any  other  Government?  If  the  flag 
was  a  reality  at  all  it  certainly  should  give  protection  on  the 
ocean  highway  to  a  passenger  who  was  pursuing  objects  of 
private  convenience,  and  certainly  was  not  amenable  to  any 
military  penalties  of  the  government  at  Washington. 

Begging  that  your  Lordship  will  acquit  me  of  the  charge  of 
importunity  in  a  matter  the  importance  of  which  is  by  no 
means  altogether  personal  to  myself,  I  have  the  honor,  &c., 

Your  obedient  servant, 

EDW.  A.  POLLARD. 

P.  S.  I  telegraphed  your  Lordship  on  the  24th  instant  to  ob 
tain  liberty  for  me  to  see  you  in  Washington,  in  the  interest 
of  the  Greyhound,  but  have  received  no  reply ;  hence  these 
lines. 


*  Another  circumstance :  It  is  true  that  if  the  blockade-runner  be  seen  in 
flagrante  delicto  passing  the  territorial  lines,  she  may  be  pursued  and  taken  on 
the  high  seas.  But  the  Greyhound  was  not  pursued,  she  was  waylaid  on  the 
highway  of  the  seas.  Such  a  practice  would  convert  the  blockade  into  a  sys 
tem  of  roving  commissions,  and  might  as  well  be  predicated  of  the  coast  of 
Bermuda  as  of  that  of  the  Confederate  States. 


APPENDIX.  337 


YI. 

BRITISH  LEGATION,  WASHINGTON,  D.  C.,  May  28,  1864. 

SIR:  I  have  received  your  letter  of  the  day  before  yes- 
terday. 

On  receiving  your  telegram  of  the  24th  instant,  stating  that 
you  were  charged  to  represent  to  me  the  facts  of  the  case  of 
the  Greyhound  and  the  interests  of  the  owners,  I  sent  by 
telegraph  instructions  to  Her  Majesty's  consul  at  Boston  to 
ask  you  to  communicate  on  these  matters  with  him  for 
my  information.  I  have  to-day  received  from  him  an  ac 
count  of  an  interview  which  he  had  with  you  the  day  before 
yesterday. 

I  will  request  the  consul  to  see  that  any  British  subjects  in 
terested  in  the  Greyhound  have  proper  facilities  for  defending 
their  interests  before  the  Prize  Court.  This  is  all  I  can  do  at 
present.  I  have  referred  the  case  to  Her  Majesty's  Govern 
ment,  and  I  deem  it  right  to  wait  for  instructions  from  them 
before  taking  further  steps. 

I  am,  Sir,  your  obedient  servant, 

LYOSTS. 
EDWARD  A.  POLLARD,  Esq. 

YIL 

FORT  WARREN,  Boston  Harbor,  July  2  [should  be  June  2],  1864. 

LORD  LYONS,  Envoy  Extraordinary  and  Minister  Plenipotentiary  for  Her 
Britannic  Majesty,  near  Washington : 

MY  LORD  :  I  have  been  honored  by  your  attention  in  two 
letters,  which,  I  beg  leave  to  state  very  respectfully,  have  left 
me  in  some  confusion  of  mind  as  to  your  Lordship's  views  and 
intentions  with  reference  to  my  case.  On  the  20th  ultimo,  you 
write  that  you  had  "  expressed  your  hope"  to  the  Secretary  of 
State  of  the  United  States  that  I  should  be  "set  free  imme 
diately,"  &c. ;  and  on  the  28th  ultimo,  you  do  not  say  what  has 
been  the  issue  of  that  hope,  and  while  referring  to  the  prize 
proceedings  against  the  Greyhound,  you  make  no  reference 
whatever  to  my  personal  claims  of  protection  by  the  British 

22 


338  THE  THIRD  YEAR  OF  THE  WAR. 

flag,  as  a  passenger  on  the  high  seas.  In  the  mean  time,  I 
have  been  imprisoned  in  Fort  Warren,  by  orders  from  Wash 
ington,  without  notice,  without  trial,  and  without  being  ad 
vised  of  any  charge  whatever  against  me, 

It  is  true,  that  Her  Majesty's  consul  at  Boston  mentioned  to 
me  that  he  understood  that  you  had  written  the  first  letter,  as 
suring  me  of  my  claim  of  liberty,  under  the  impression  that 
I  was  a  British  subject :  an  impression  which  your  Lordship 
will  do  me  the  justice  to  observe  was  not  derived  from  any 
statement  of  mine,  or  any  implication  of  my  correspondence. 
But  I  cannot  see  the  force  of  the  distinction.  If  I  had  been 
an  Englishman,  it  seemed  I  would  have  been  entitled  to  my 
release :  why  ? — by  grace  of  the  Washington  authorities,  or  by 
force  of  right  ?  The  former  supposition  I  think  I  may  safely 
say  would  be  resented  by  yourself,  as  well  as  by  your  Govern 
ment,  my  Lord  ;  and  if  the  release,  then,  is  to  be  put  on  any 
grounds  of  right,  then  the  case  of  the  Englishman  would  be 
no  better  than  my  own.  The  flag  would  protect  me  as  well  as 
him.  It,  either,  must  be  a  piece  of  bunting,  and  protects 
nothing,  or,  if  it  protects  anything,  it  would  protect  all  pas 
sengers  alike.  As  far  as  the  question  is  that  of  citizens  or  per 
sons,  it  belongs  to  my  own  Government,  and  I  am  willing  to 
rest  it  there ;  but  as  a  question  involving  the  British  flag  on 
the  high  geas,  which,  either  sinks  there  all  other  insignia  and 
distinctions  of  nationality,  and  protects  all  passengers  alike,  or 
is  an  unmeaning  display,  I  have  brought  it  to  the  considera 
tion  of  your  Lordship,  and  respectfully  asked  your  decision. 
I  cannot  find  that  the  latter  is  stated  or  intimated  in  the  let 
ters  of  your  Lordship,  to  which  I  have  had  the  honor  to  refer. 
I  have,  &c.,  your  obedient  servant, 

EDWARD  A.  POLLARD. 


Yin. 

BRITISH  LEGATION,  WASHINGTON,  D.  0.,  June  9,  1864. 
SIR  :  I  received,  on  the  6th  instant,  a  letter  from  you,  dated 
(evidently  by  mistake)  2d  of  July.     In  answer  to  it,  I  can  only 
say  that  I  have  referred  your  case  to  Her  Majesty's  Govern 
ment,  and  sent  them  copies  of  your  letters  to  me,  and  that, 


APPENDIX.  339 

while  waiting  for  instructions  from  them,  I  do  not  feel  at 
liberty  to  discuss  the  subject.     "Whatever   orders  they  may 
think  proper  to  give  will  be  immediately  executed  by  me. 
I  am,  Sir, 

Your  obedient  servant, 

LYONS. 
E.  A.  POLLABD,  Esq.,  Fort  Warren. 


340  THE  THIRD  YEAR  OF  THE  WAR. 


CHAPTER  III. 

A  WEEK  IN  BOSTON.— Introduction  to  the  U.  S.  Marshal.— In  the  Streets  of  Boston : 
Two  Spectacles. — A  Circle  of  Secessionists. — The  "Hub  of  the  Universe." 

As  the  Greyhound  worked  her  way  through  the  green  and 
picturesque  archipelago  of  Boston  harbor,  the  pilot  did  me  the 
kindness  of  pointing  out  Fort  Warren  as  my  probable  abode 
for  some  future  months,  and  confidentially  spitting  in  rny  ear 
the  advice  to  "  holler  for  the  Union."  He  had  also  found  oc 
casion  to  essay  some  advice  to  "  Jane,"  a  negro-woman,  one  • 
of  those  tidy,  respectable  family  servants  redolent  of  "  Old 
Virginia,"  who  had  been  captured  on  her  way  to  join  her  mis 
tress,  the  wife  of  a  Confederate  agent  in  Bermuda.  Jane's  re 
sponse  was  not  complimentary  ;  for  the  experience  of  the 
Yankee,  which  that  respectable  colored  female  had  obtained 
from  the  amount  of  swearing  and  swilling  on  the  Greyhound, 
had  induced  her  to  assert,  with  melancholy  gravity,  that  "  she 
had  not  seen  a  Christian  since  she  left  Petersburg." 

The  United  States  Marshal,  who  was  introduced  by  the 
prize-master,  with  the  whispered  injunction  that  "  we  had  bet 
ter  be  polite,"  was  a  little  Yankee  with  gimlet  eyes,  and  who, 
with  the  fondness  of  his  nation  for  official  insignia,  had  adorned 
himself  with  a  long  tail  coat,  scrupulously  blue,  and  garnished 
with  immense  metal  buttons  marked  U.  S.  He  was  accom 
panied  by  three  citizens,  two  of  whom  appeared  to  be  civil  and 
intelligent  gentlemen,  whose  curiosity,  if  that  was  the  motive 
of  their  visit,  was  subdued  by  their  politeness.  The  third  had 
an  emasculated  lisp,  which  I  afterwards  found  to  be  character 
istic  of  a  certain  class  in  Boston,  and  which  was  increased  in 
this  instance  by  the  effect  of  the  liquor  he  had  drank.  "  He 
was  a  Virginian  ;  he  thought  it  right  to  indulge  a  little  State 
pride."  "  Oh,  to  be  sure,"  responded  the  prisoners,  who 
thought  the  confidential  injunction  to  be  polite  to  the  marshal 
included  his  toady.  The  fellow  came  up  to  me  whispering 


APPENDIX.  341 

something  about  "  his  sympathies  being  with  Virginia,  but  it 

wouldn't  do  to  let  the  d d  rascals  know  it."  I  was  glad 

enough  to  repel  the  embraces  of  this  creature  without  inquir 
ing  why  it  "  wouldn't  do  "  to  testify  his  sympathies  for  Virginia, 
and  how  it  was  that  his  sympathies  detained  him  in  Boston, 
and  kept  him  in  the  company  of  "  d d  rascals."  I  after 
wards  discovered  that  he  was  a  prize-lawyer,  and  preyed  for  a 
living  upon  Yankee  crews. 

The  marshal  having  taken  himself  off  with  the  prize-master, 
I  was,  about  sundown,  invited  ashore  by  a  severe-looking  man, 
placed  in  a  carriage  and  driven  along  the  green  skirt  of  Boston 
Common  to  a  building,  which  I  was  told  contained  the  mar 
shal's  office.  That  official  had  not  arrived  there.  I  was  waved 
back  into  the  carriage  by  the  severe  man.  "  Where  are  we 
going,  now  ?"  I  asked,  pleasantly.  "  To  the  jail  /"  replied  the 
severe  man,  very  sharply  and  sententiously.  I  protested  I 
was  a  passenger  on  board  the  Greyhound,  already  in  com 
munication  with  Lord  Lyons,  to  protect  my  rights,  as  such, 
under  the  neutral  flag  on  the  high  seas  ;  and  if  the  marshal  or 
his  deputy  presumed  to  treat  me  as  a  criminal,  and  put  me  in 
a  common  jail,  it  would  be  at  the  peril  of  grave  legal  conse 
quences. 

The  latter  part  of  my  protest  seemed  to  affect  the  deputy, 
for  he  relaxed  his  brows,  and  had  me  driven  to  the  Tremont 
House,  where  the  marshal  was  to  be  found.  I  was  readily 
released  on  my  parole  not  to  attempt  to  escape.  At  a  subse 
quent  hour  of  the  night,  having  found  my  way  to  a  very  mod 
est,  but  excellent  hotel,  where  I  registered  as  "  E.  A.  Parkin 
son,"  from  "  New  York,"  I,  at  last,  relieved  from  the  presence 
of  authority,  and  the  annoyance  of  impertinent  curiosity, 
enjoyed  the  first  undisturbed  sleep  I  had  had  for  many 
nights. 


I  felt  something  like  a  translation  to  a  new  world  in  the  gay 
streets  and  luxurious  hotels  of  Boston.  In  the  latter  places 
were  to  be  seen  knots  of  sleek,  lust-dieted  men,  lounging  and 
guzzling ;  in  the  streets,  a  dizzy  show  of  well-dressed  crowds, 
going  to  and  fro  on  errands  of  business  and  pleasure,  or  in  the 


342  THE  THIRD  YEAR  OF  THE  WAR. 

idle  excursions  of  ostentation.  What  a  contrast  to  the  scanty 
homes  of  Richmond,  and  its  streets,  where  soldiers  in  dust- 
stained  gray  challenge  the  passenger,  and  where  the  eye  has 
become  accustomed  to  the  home-spun  garb,  the  mildewed 
uniform,  and  the  other  proud  tokens  of  the  unabashed  and 
stern  poverty  of  a  country  fighting  for  liberty  !  Oh,  my  coun 
trymen  !  how  my  heart  bounds  to  think  of  you,  in  the  dainty 
and  ostentatious  crowd  that  besets  me !  Our  tears,  our  dust- 
stained  rags,  our  broken  goods,  our  images  of  poverty — shall 
not  history  gather  them  into  a  monument  more  glorious  and 
more  enduring  than  any  the  hand  of  Opulence  can  rear  ! 

I  had  been  left  to  understand  that  owing  to  the  delay  of  the 
"Washington  Government  in  attending  to  such  small  matters  as 
the  rights  of  liberty  of  individuals,  I  should  probably  have  my 
parole  for  a  week  or  ten  days  in  Boston,  and  might  enjoy  my 
self  accordingly.  But  what  enjoyment !  Wherever  I  ven 
tured  out,  I  was  sure  to  get  my  dose  of  Yankee,  and  on  all 
occasions  of  such  "  enjoyment,"  I  was  glad  to  get  back  to  the 
privacy  of  the  four  walls  of  my  little  bedroom. 

I  might  go  into  the  parlors  or  the  reading-rooms  of  ,the 
hotels,  and  see  there  the  peculiar  fungi  of  Yankee  hotel  society. 
I  might  sally  into  the  streets,  and  see  the  equipages  of  "  Shod 
dy,"  driven  by  solemn-looking  coachmen,  dressed  in  black, 
with  mutton  whiskers.  I  might  stroll  into  Boston  Common, 
and  be  beset  there  by  the  itinerant  Yankee  with  his  "  Respiro- 
meter,"  his  "  Grand  Stereopticon  of  the  War,"  or  some  other 
one-cent  wonder.  It  is  not  strange  that  a  plain  Confederate 
might  be  disgusted  with  such  a  programme  of  entertainment. 
But  I  did  find  some  amusement,  at  occasional  hours,  in  walking 
through  Washington  street,  and  observing  crowds  of  enthused 
Yankees,  including  strapping  women,  with  strong  minds  and 
constitutional  "yearnings,"  gathered  around  the  garish  lies 
of  the  newspaper  bulletins,  and  devouring  such  intelligence  as 
the  "  Capture  of  Richmond,"  "  Rout  of  the  Rebels,"  "  Defeat 
of  Hampton's  Legion  by  Massachusetts  Negroes,"  &c.,  &c. 

There  were  two  occasions  in  Boston  which  drew  me  from  the 
retirement  of  my  hotel.  One  was  the  celebration  of  the  return 
of  a  Massachusetts  regiment,  from  the  lines  in  Virginia,  their 
term  of  service  having  expired,  and  the  "brave  boys"  having 
sought  their  homes  in  the  very  heat  and  crisis  of  Grant's  mem- 


APPENDIX.  343 

orable  campaign.  They  had  left  Virginia  at  the  very  moment 
the  sreat  battle  had  been  joined  on  the  Rapidan.  Such  con 
duct  would  have  been  despised  as  an  exhibition  of  selfishness 
or  cowardice  in  the  South,  and  a  regiment  of  Confederates 
returning  home,  under  such  circumstances,  would  have  been 
hooted  in  the  streets  of  Richmond.  But  the  Yankee  is  too 
fond  of  "  sensations"  to  analyze  any  moral  question  they  may 
involve.  The  whole  of  Boston  was  in  an  uproar  of  delight  to 
receive  the  returned  regiment,  which  was  escorted  through  the 
streets  with  all  the  military  display  the  city  could  muster  : 
flags  waving  welcome,  spreads  of  canvas  in  the  streets  entitled 
"  Honor  to  the  Brave,"  handkerchiefs  and  parasols  flapped 
from  windows,  car-loads  of  school-children,  and  a  jam  of  omni 
buses  at  each  corner  of  the  route  of  "  the  braves,"  crowned 
with  admiring  spectators.  Then  there  was  a  dinner  at  Faneuil 
Hall,  a  speech  from  Governor  Andrew,  and  complimentary 
honors  enough  to  fill  two  or  three  columns  of  the  next  morn 
ing's  papers. 

Really,  the  most  curious  philosophy  in  the  composition  of 
the  Yankee  is  his  love  of  sensation  :  the  most  distinctive  trait, 
too,  of  the  nation,  and  one  in  such  especial  and  striking  con 
trast  to  the  plain  and  serious  manners  of  the  Confederates.  It 
has  frequently  occurred  to  me  that  an  occasion  of  the  sympathy 
of  Englishmen  with  us  in  this  war  is  the  similarity  of  our 
manners,  proceeding  in  each  instance  from  the  habit  of  a  quiet 
and  practical  estimation  of  things  at  their  right  value.  The 
Confederates  are  a  people  of  habitual  sobriety  of  sentiment, 
readily  excited  on  due  occasion,  but  much  more  by  the  inspira 
tion  of  abstract  principles  than  by  the  names  of  persons.  How 
different  the  Yankee !  I  have  seen  General  Lee  passing  through 
the  streets  of  Richmond  without  a  huzza  and  without  any  other 
attestation  of  his  presence  than  that  of  his  being  occasionally 
pointed  out  with  a  quiet  and  respectful  regard.  I  certainly 
never  heard  of  a  mob  of  admirers  at  his  hotel,  or  a  deputation 
of  Confederate  damsels  to  kiss  him.  But  the  Yankees  must 
have  their  "  big  thing,"  and  if  there  is  nothing  else  to  serve 
their  appetite  these  people  will  actually  exaggerate  their  own 
disgrace  and  caricature  themselves  rather  than  not  have  their 
"  sensation"  in  the  penny  newspapers.  We  all  recollect  what 
magnified  and  gloating  descriptions  the  Yankee  journals  gave 


344  THE  THIRD  YEAR  OF  THE  WAR. 

us  of  the  footrace  of  their  army  from  Bull  Kun  to  "Washington 
— one  of  the  first  "  sensations"  of  the  war.  And  here  we  have 
a  twent}'-four  hours  "  sensation"  in  Boston  in  the  celebration 
of  the  return  of  a  regiment  of  soldiers,  who  came  home  in  the 
remarkable  circumstances  that  they  have  not  re-enlisted  for  the 
war,  and  have  turned  their  backs  upon  their  comrades  at  the 
brunt  of  the  campaign. 

The  other  occasion  which  took  me  into  the  streets  was  one 
of  sad,  memorable  interest.  I  had  seen  in  one  of  the  city 
papers  that  two  hundred  Confederate  prisoners  were  expected 
in  Boston  from  the  prisons  in  the  West ;  they  having  taken  the 
oath  of  allegiance  and  enlisted  in  the  Yankee  navy.  I  went  to 
the  depot  to  see  these  wretched  men,  and  when  I  saw  them 
filing  through  the  dense  crowd,  with  their  emaciated  faces  and 
bowed  heads,  I  could  not  find  it  in  my  heart  to  accuse  them. 
There  was  the  evidence  in  their  pinched  faces  and  flimsy  rags 
of  the  devilish  appliances  of  torture  that  had  been  used  to 
break  the  spirit  and  impugn  the  honor  of  these  unfortunates. 

But  in  the  behavior  of  the  crowd  which  received  them  at  the 
depot  there  was  a  lesson  which  I  trust  I  may  never  forget.  The 
poor  fellows  were  ridiculed  at  every  step,  laughed  at,  assailed 
with  contemptuous  remarks,  and  had  to  run  the  gauntlet  of 
the  wit  of  butcher  boys  and  greasy  loafers,  well  pleased  with 
their  supposed  superiority  to  Southern  "barbarians."  Such 
was  the  fraternal  reception  of  those  who  returned  to  Yankee 
allegiance.  And  in  this  scene  of  derision  at  the  depot  I  saw  in 
miniature  what  would  be  the  real  consequences  of  the  return 
of  the  Confederacy  to  the  Union,  and  what  meant  for  us  the 
promised  embrace  of  fraternal  reconciliation. 

Oh !  my  countrymen,  death  and  the  visitation  of  all  other 
misfortunes  and  misery,  rather  than  the  embrace  of  our  enemy  ! 
God  spare  us  the  pollution  of  contact  with  a  people,  who,  af 
fecting  so  much  outwardly,  have  turned  every  thing  to  a  lie, 
and  who,  ravening  for  our  blood,  smile  and  stab.  Who  could 
endure  the  triumph  of  the  Yankee,  the  braggart  exultation  of 
the  coxcombs  of  creation  !  Rather  the  grave  cover  us  and  our 
name,  and  our  dear  country  pass  away  in  the  mist  of  blood  and 
tears,  than  we  should  consent  to  this  humiliation ! 


APPENDIX.  345 

I  had  passed  a  week  in  Boston,  entirely  unknown  and  se 
cluded,  when  an  incident  occurred  that  was  to  open  to  me  a 
new  and  surprising  interest  in  this  Yankee  metropolis.  I  was 
sauntering  in  the  reading-room  of  the  hotel  one  evening,  when 
an  amiable  looking  gentleman  came  up  to  me  with  a  beaming 
face  and  whispered,  "  Are  you  not  Mr.  Pollard,  from  Rich 
mond  ?"  I  was  so  taken  aback  by  the  plump  question  that  I 
could  not  help  answering  "  Yes."  "  I  thought  so,"  he  replied, 
quickly  ;  "  some  detectives  here  know  you  ;  hush,  talk  low — I 
want  you  to  let  me  bring  a  friend  around  to  see  you  at  nine 
o'clock  this  evening."  I  signified  my  assent,  and  awaited  with 
some  interest  an  interview  about  which  there  appeared  to  be 
some  mystery. 

At  nine  o'clock  I  received  in  my  chamber  the  gentleman 
who  had  so  unceremoniously  introduced  himself  to  me,  and 
who  was,  indeed,  to  prove  a  friend,  accompanied  by  a  gentle 
man  whose  name  was  already  familiar  to  me  as  one  who  had 
suffered  for  his  early  and  brave  sympathy  with  the  Confed 
eracy  in  this  war.  There  are  obvious  reasons  why  I  should 
not  mention  here  the  names  of  these  friends  and  of  other  sym 
pathetic  persons  in  Boston,  afterwards  found,  who  surprised  me, 
not  only  by  the  warmth  and  delicacy  of  their  personal  kind 
ness,  but  by  their  sentiments  for  my  country. 

I  sat  up  with  my  two  visitors  until  near  three  o'clock  in  the 
morning  in  conversation  on  the  war,  answering  their  eager  in 
quiries  of  men  and  things  in  the  Confederacy.  The  next  day 
it  was  insisted  that  I  should  be  introduced  to  a  number  of  per 
sons  in  Boston  who  sympathized  with  the  South ;  and  some  of 
my  countrymen  will  be  surprised  to  learn  that  to  meet  these 
persons  I  was  carried  to  the  Merchants'  Exchange,  to  the  offi 
ces  of  leading  lawyers,  and  to  some  of  the  largest  business  es 
tablishments  in  Boston.  I  may  say  here  that  in  the  course  of 
two  or  three  days  I  met  at  least  one  hundred  gentlemen  in 
Boston,  among  its  most  influential  classes,  who  expressed  to 
me  an  ardent  sympathy  for  the  South  in  her  struggle  for  con 
stitutional  liberty,  and  an  earnest  desire  for  the  acknowledg 
ment  of  her  independence  as  the  only  possible  termination  of 
an  unnatural  and  unhappy  war. 

To  no  one  could  this  have  been  a  greater  surprise  than  my 
self.  I  had  long  been  a  skeptic  as  to  the  opposition  to  the 


THE   THIRD   YEAR   OF   THE   WAR. 

Lincoln  Government  in  the  North,  and  had  esteemed  it 
nothing  more  than  a  demonstration  of  partisan  machinery,  in 
competition  for  office  and  power.  But  however  correct  may 
be  this  general  estimate  of  parties  in  the  North,  what  I  was 
made  a  private  witness  of  in  Boston  was  sufficient  to  satisfy 
any  -candid  mind  that  the  Southern  Confederacy  had  a  party 
in  the  North  of  devoted  and  intelligent  friends  entitled  to  her 
consideration  and  gratitude.  What  was  most  remarkable  was 
that  these  men  sympathized  with  us  not  from  infidelity  to  their 
own  section,  but  on  the  high  and  intelligent  grounds  that  the 
war  involves  the  issue  of  their  own  liberties,  and  that  the 
Southern  Confederacy  in  this  struggle  represents  what  remains 
of  constitutional  law  and  conservatism  in  America,  battling 
against  a  fanaticism  which  must  at  last  be  destructive  of  itself. 
A  sympathy  of  this  sort  is  valuable.  There  is,  perhaps,  other 
sympathy  with  us  in  the  North  proceeding  from  less  honora 
ble  motives,  the  mere  fruit  of  faction — properly  entitled 
"  Copperheadism" — which  I  am  very  much  inclined  to  think 
is  worthless  and  contemptible.  "  Sir,"  said  a  leading  merchant 
of  Boston  to  me,  "I  am  not  what  is  called  a  disloyal  man.  I 
want  to  see  the  South  succeed  because  I  want  to  see  the  con 
stitutional  issue  she  is  fighting  for,  succeed.  I  regard  General 
Lee  as  fighting  our  battles  as  well  as  your  own,  and  if  he  is 
whipped  we  shall  have  a  despotism  at  Washington  which  will 
crush  freedom  in  the  North,  as  well  as  independence  in  the 
South." 

In  short,  I  had  discovered  a  circle  of  •"  secessionists"  in  Bos 
ton,  and  had  been  cursing  the  black  desert  of  heartless  crowds 
before  my  eyes,  without  the  least  thought  that  it  contained  an 
oasis  for  the  despised  Confederate.  I  was  overwhelmed  with 
kindness  by  my  newly  found  friends,  offered  a  testimonial  din 
ner  which  I  peremptorily  declined;  invited  to  charming  coun 
try  places  and  suburban  rides,  Alas,  from  this  amicable  diver 
sion  my  thoughts  were  to  be  soon  turned  into  a  channel  of 
bitterness !  What  could  avail  even  the  most  generous  kind 
ness  of  a  few  individuals  when  I  had  been  marked  as  a  victim 
by  the  Autocracy  at  Washington,  and  the  iron  wheel  of  ita 
torture  was  being  prepared  to  crush  out  my  life  or  grind  it 
with  all  the  unutterable  misery  that  the  imagination  of  des 
potism  could  invent. 


APPENDIX. 


CHAPTER  IV. 

COMMITMENT  TO  FORT  WARREN. — Horrors  of  the  Yankee  Bastile. — Torture  of  "  A 
Brutal  Villain."— A  Letter  to  Secretary  Welles. 

I  WAS  taken  from  a  sick  bed  to  my  granite  prison  and  sack 
of  straw.  I  had  been  suffering  for  many  months  from  nervous 
prostration  ;  and  so  much  had  it  been  aggravated,  by  the  anx 
ieties  of  my  situation,  that  I  had  taken  myself  to  bed.  I  was 
lying  there,  the  morning  of  Sunday,  the  29th  of  May,  when  a 
deputy  of  the  United  States  marshal  entered  my  room,  and 
commanded  me  to  accompany  him  to  Fort  Warren.  There 
was  no  explanation  of  this  harsh  and  immediate  summons, 
except  that  "  orders  had  come  to  that  effect  from  Washington." 
In  vain  I  plead  the  confines  of  sickness,  and  sought  the  delay 
of  a  single  day.  "  Could  I  see  the  marshal  ?"  "  No."  The 
orders  from  Washington  were  to  imprison  me  "  forthwith." 
"  What  was  I  accused  of?  Why  was  it  that  the  other  passen 
gers  on  the  Greyhound  were  so  graciously  liberated,  and  I 
alone  to  be  sent  to  Fort  Warren  ?"  The  officer  did  not  know. 
So,  without  explanation,  without  notice,  without  process  of 
any  sort,  I  had  been  selected,  the  single  victim,  to  suffer  for 
the  Greyhound,  while  her  master  was  off  for  Canada,  and 
the  other  passengers  had  been  permitted,  without  a  whisper  of 
investigation,  to  proceed  in  the  same  direction.  Perhaps  my 
imprisonment,  under  these  circumstances,  was  a  compliment 
ary  distinction  ;  but  I  must  confess  that,  at  the  time,  I  could 
not,  as  the  Yankees  say,  "  see  it  in  that  light." 

In  the  beautiful  Sabbath-day,  full  of  sunshine,  through  the 
sparkling  water,  and  along  the  green  islands  of  the  bay,  I  was 
carried  to  my  prison-house,  the  sight  of  whose  solid  masonry, 
rising  above  the  bright  water,  smote  my  heart  with  a  strange 
agony.  What  a  mockery  all  this  flashing  and  picturesque 
scenery  of  Boston  bay,  as  I  passed  through  it  on  the  way  to 
prison.  Through  it  all  I  could  see  the  horrid  maw  of  the  jail 


348  THE  THIRD  YEAR  OF  THE  WAR. 

that  awaited  me,  and  the  black  veil  that  was  to  fall '  over  my 
hopes,  and  drape  my  life  in  mourning. 

I  was  presented  to  Major  Cabot,  commandant  of  the  fort, 
"  registered,"  and  was  then  asked  to  surrender  my  money  and 
give  an  account  of  my  effects.  The  latter  proceedings  were 
undertaken  by  Lieutenant  Parry,  the  officer  "  in  charge  of 
prisoners,"  who  dispensed  with  all  that  was  unpleasant  in 
them,  and  took  my  word  that  I  had  "  neither  weapons  nor 
documents"  in  my  baggage.  This  officer  was  very  civil,  and 
not  only  spared  me  the  indignity  of  a  search,  but  addressed  me 
some  polite  common-places,  kindly  intended,  I  thought,  to 
compose  my  mind.  He  inquired  when  I  had  left  Richmond  ; 
and  asked,  with  an  appearance  of  great  interest,  after  the  con 
dition  of  General  Longstreet,  who  had  been  wounded  before  I 
had  taken  my  departure  from  the  Confederacy. 

Here  let  me  say,  once  for  all,  that  I  am  satisfied  the  officers 
of  Fort  Warren  showed,  to  the  prisoners  in  their  charge,  all 
the  kindness  they  could  venture ;  but,  at  the  same  time,  I  am 
forced  to  declare  that  this  disposition  could  do  but  little  to 
mitigate  that  system  of  punishment  of  prisoners  of  war  de 
manded  at  Washington. 

I  was  consigned  to  a  casemate,  and  a  sack  of  straw  for  my 
bed. 

As  I  passed  the  sally-port,  in  charge  of  a  corporal,  my  name 
was  called  out,  and  one  of  a  melancholy  group  of  men  ad 
vanced  to  meet  me.  It  was  Y.  of  Richmond,  but  I  scarcely 
recognized  him,  for  his  hair  had  turned  gray,  and  his  prison 
attire  made  him  a  strange  spectacle.  "You  here!"  I  ex 
claimed  ;  "  how  long  have  you  been  in  this  prison  ?"  "  Eight 
een  months  /"  was  the  solemn  reply.  I  had  never  heard  in 
Richmond  of  his  arrest.  But  there  were  other  terrible  disclo 
sures  for  me,  which  I  had  never  heard  in  Richmond  ;  which 
the  people  had  never  heard  in  Richmond  ;  but  which  the  Gov 
ernment,  in  that  Confederate  city,  had  assuredly  heard,  and 
had  kept  to  itself  in  silence  and  submission. 

Here  in  this  fort,  companions  of  my  misfortune,  were  one 
hundred  and  sixty  odd  men,  the  majority  of  them  prisoners 
for  more  than  a  year. 

Here,  entombed  in  solitary  confinement,  were  seven  brave 
soldiers  of  the  Confederacy,  taken  in  Yirginia  and  Tennessee. 


APPENDIX.  3tl:9 

* 

Here,  sentenced  by  a  Yankee  court-martial  to  fifteen  years 
imprisonment,  were  two  Confederate  officers,  Major  Armesy 
and  Lieutenant  Davis ;  thus  punished  for  recruiting  Confed 
erate  troops  in  Western  Virginia. 

Here,  in  the  quarters  allotted  to  solitary  imprisonment 
(brought  here),  was  Captain  Brattle,  of  Wheeler's  cavalry, 
conveniently  designated  as  a  guerilla,  and  treated  as  a  felon. 

I  did  not  learn  these  facts  without  a  shudder.  How  long 
was  I  to  continue  here,  and  the  words  "  how  long  f"  seemed  to 
reverberate  in  my  heart  like  a  knell.  I  was  too  sick  to  eat, 
and  did  not  go  to  the  cook-house,  where  another  horror  of  my 
prison  awaited  me.  But  I  had  learned  enough  for  one  day. 
As  I  laid  upon  my  wretched  bed  at  night,  and  watched  the 
thin  slice  of  moonlit  sky,  that  shone  through  the  grating,  my 
nature  seemed  absorbed  with  unutterable  horror. 

The  hardships  of  a  prison,  its  physical  restraints,  its  beggar 
diet,  are,  after  all,  but  slight  evils,  compared  with  the  mental 
distress  (aggravated,  in  my  case,  by  a  nervous  constitution  and 
diseased  body),  occasionally  taking  the  form  of  a  morbid  agony, 
as  the  spirit  wrestles  for  LIBERTY.  For  the  first  time  in  my 
life  I  felt  the  meaning  of  this  precious  word — no  longer  now 
the  mere  decantation  of  poetry  and  sentiment.  I  had  often 
used  it  as  an  idle  ornament  in  language,  but  I  little  knew  the 
sweet  and  hidden  meanings  of  this  noble  word,  how  it  signified 
the  vital  possession  of  man's  nature,  and  contained  the  richest 
jewel  of  his  inheritance  from  God. 


I  found  in  the  morning  newspapers  the  anouncement  of  my 
incarceration,  coupled  with  such  comments  as  might  be  ex 
pected  from  the  cowardly  malignity  of  a  Yankee,  where  its  ob 
ject  is  a  helpless  prisoner.  The  announcement  in  one  paper 
was  entitled  "  A  Brutal  Villain."  Another  administered  the 
following  warning: 

"  Some  stronghold  like  that  in  which  he  has  heen  placed  is  the  safest 
quarters  Pollard  can  find,  as  he  is  a  doomed  man  among  the  surviving  pris 
oners  who  have  been  released  from  Richmond." 

But  the  following  in  a  Pennsylvania  paper  (Pittsburg  Dis 
patch]  was  a  complimentary  notice,  especially  to  be  preserved  : 


350  THE  THIKD  TEAR  OF  THE  WAR. 

•. 

"  To  this  man's  coarse,  unfeeling  brutality  our  men  attribute  no  small 
share  of  the  indignities  and  hardships  heaped  upon  them  in  Richmond,  and 
his  voice  was  never  heard  but  against  them — never  raised  save  to  inculcate 
the  justice  or  expediency  of  some  newly  devised  brutality.  He  is  one  of 
that  little  band  of  malignants  who  have  been  engaged,  heart  and  hand,  for 
three  years,  in  spreading  among  the  ignorant  masses  of  the  South,  the  most 
villainous  misrepresentations  of  the  Government  and  the  Northern  people, 
and  who  have  done  more,  as  journalists,  to  sustain  the  rebel  cause  than  regi 
ments  of  soldiers  in  the  field.  For  his  exertions  in  this  line,  however,  we 
could  afford  to  trust  him  to  the  vengeance  of  the  Government,  but  for  his  un 
warranted  and  unmanly  efforts  to  oppress  the  already  overburdened  prison 
ers  in  Eichmond,  we  look  to  another  source  for  punishment.  Our  towns 
man,  Colonel  Rose,  and  a  score  of  others,  well  known  and  dear  to  us,  have 
had  a  taste  of  this  man's  quality,  and  we  ask  for  no  other  satisfaction  than 
that  chance  may  favor  any  one  of  them  with  a  momentary  meeting.  There 
will  assuredly  be  one  educated  villain  less  to  labor  in  the  rebel  cause." 

Of  course,  one's  flesh  might  be  expected  to  tingle  at  this 
foul  and  cowardly  abuse.  The  next  minute  a  sensible  man 
would  be  inclined  to  laugh  at  it — especially  the  valiant  threat 
of  Colonel  "  Rose"  and  other  flowers  of  Yankee  chivalry.  In 
another  moment  reflection  would  teach  him  that  he  was  com 
plimented  by  such  evidence  of  his  personal  importance,  and 
decorated,  as  every  true  Confederate  is,  by  the  libel  of  a  Yankee 
newspaper. 

The  sufferings  I  was  to  endure  were  to  be  terrible  enough  ; 
but  added  to  them  was  the  constant  smart  of  Yankee  false 
hood,  which,  ignoring  the  victims  of  its  own  cruelty,  was  in 
cessantly  publishing  the  imaginary  misery  of  prisoners  in 
Richmond  and  elsewhere  in  the  Confederacy.  One  can  have 
an  idea  of  the  smart  of  this  misrepresentation,  if  he  will  imagine 
a  Confederate  cut  off  from  the  wrorld  by  the  wralls  of  a  prison, 
and  compelled  to  chew  his  indignation  in  silence,  reading  every 
day  in  Yankee  newspapers  some  new  version  of  "  the  barbar 
ities  of  the  rebels,"  and  left  to  conjecture  that  the  world  is  in 
duced  to  believe  these  vile  slanders,  scattered  to  the  ends  of  it, 
without  the  opportunity  of  any  contradiction  on  the  other 
side.  But  there  is  some  possible  comfort  in  the  reflection,  that 
Yankee  falsehood  in  this  war  has  overleaped  itself.  A  people 
who,  ravaging  the  country  of  their  neighbors,  burning  their 
houses  and  property,  and  stripping  the  shelter  over  the  heads 
of  women  and  children,  yet  entitle  their  adversary  as  savages, 
and  assert  themselves  champions  of  civilization  ;  who,  fighting 


APPENDIX.  351 

for  the  fourth  year  an  mi  conquered  country,  have,  in  the  entire 
history  of  that  war,  represented  every  event  as  a  Yankee  suc 
cess,  and  a  mortal  blow  to  the  Confederacy,  are  no  more  dis 
creditable  witnesses  in  these  particulars  than  when  they  parade 
before  the  world  their  nursery  dramas  of  the  horrors  of  "rebel" 
prisons. 

To  the  sufferings  of  my  first  days  in  Fort  Warren  my  mem 
ory  reverts  with  an  irrepressible  shudder.  If  I  had  been  in 
health  I  might  easily  have  endured  the  hardships  assigned  me, 
including  the  straw  sack;  the  diapharnous  slices  of  bread  and 
the  bits  of  fat  pork.  But  the  nervous  affection  from  which  I 
had  long  suffered,  and  which  was  now  aggravated  by  the  anxi 
eties  and  rude  trials  of  imprisonment,  had  taken  an  alarming 
aspect.  A  partial  paralysis  of  my  body  threatened  to  succeed. 
I  could  not  rise  from  my  bed  or  from  a  long  sitting  without 
finding  my  arm,  or  perhaps  my  whole  side,  temporarily  pow 
erless. 

The  kindness  of  my  fellow-prisoners,  in  these  circumstances, 
is  never  to  be  forgotten.  I  was  relieved  from  my  part  of  cook 
ing  and  washing  dishes,  and  was  excused  from  "  the  police 
duty  "  assigned  to  prisoners,  which  included  the  cleaning  of 
their  quarters  and  a  number  of  unpleasant  tasks.  My  mess 
mates  came  to  my  aid  with  friendly  sympathy.  I  obtained 
medical  advice  from  Dr.  Hambleton,  of  Georgia,  my  fellow- 
prisoner  and  excellent  friend.  Although  I  had  but  little  faith 
in  the  justice  or  humanity  of  the  Government  at  Washington, 
I  thought  it  could  scarcely  insist  upon  torturing  me,  and  would 
be  satisfied  to  secure  my  person.  I  had  applied  for  a  parole 
on  account  of  my  health,  but  in  vain  had  I  waited  for  a 
reply.  I  had  never,  even,  been  allowed  to  see  the  order 
committing  me  to  Fort  Warren ;  and  it  seemed  that  the  au 
thorities  had  not  been  willing  to  spare  me  any  agony  of  doubt 
or  suspense. 

I  had  been  in  prison  nearly  a  fortnight,  when  I  wrote  the 
following  letter  to  Washington : 

FORT  WARREN,  BOSTON  HARBOR,  June,  1864. 
MR.  GIDEON  WELLES,  Secretary  of  the  United  States  Navy : 

SIR  :  On  the  10th  of  last  month,  I  was  taken  one  hundred 
and  fifty  miles  out  at  sea  on  a  British  vessel,  where  I  was 
simply  a  citizen  passenger,  unconnected  with  any  public  ser- 


352  THE  THIRD  YEAR  OF  THE  WAR. 

vice  of  the  Confederate  States,  and  subject  to  none  of  the 
military  penalties  of  your  Government.  Other  passengers 
were  released  :  I,  alone,  of  all  the  ship's  company,  an  innocent 
passenger,  was  doomed  to  Fort  Warren.  I  was  taken  from  a 
sick  bed  to  be  brought  here.  In  these  harsh  and  invidious 
circumstances,  I  asked  but  a  parole  on  account  of  desperate 
health  ;  the  bare  concession  of  the  plainest  humanity.  Since 
my  confinement  here,  I  have  had  three  attacks  of  partial  paral 
ysis.  It  is  now  only  left  for  me  to  declare  to  your  conscience 
and  to  the  sympathy  of  the  world — not  in  terms  of  importunity 
or  any  mere  personal  disrespect,  but  in  the  spirit  of  a  solemn 
conviction — that  I  am  being  murdered  by  an  imprisonment, 
the  object  of  which  is  not  to  secure  my  person  (since  I  offered 
to  do  this  by  an  inviolable  pledge  of  honor)  but  to  punish  an 
enfeebled  body,  and  sharpen  the  torture  of  a  disease  that 
claims  pity  for  its  helplessness. 

I  am,  etc., 

EDW'D  A.  POLLARD. 

To  this  letter  I  never  received  a  word  of  reply  or  sign  of 
heed. 


APPENDIX.  353 


CHAPTER  Y. 

JOURNAL  NOTES  IN  PRISON. — Precious  Tributes  of  Sympathy. — Portrait  of  the  Yan 
kee. — A  New  England  Shepherd. — Sufferings  and  Keflections. — Fourth  of  July  in 
Fort  Warren. 

JUNE  17. — The  hours  weigh  heavily  upon  me.  In  my  im 
prisonment  and  sickness  I  have  yet  much  to  be  thankful  for, 
especially  in  the  assiduous  and  cheerful  attentions  of  my  fel 
low-prisoner,  Doctor  Hambleton.  The  pastimes  in  our  prison- 
life  are  meagre  enough.  Reading  the  newspapers  and  eviscer 
ating  Yankee  falsehoods  are  our  chief  employments. 

The  good  friends  I  have  made  in  Boston  have  not  forgotten 
me,  and  I  have  frequent  occasion  to  acknowledge  their  kind 
ness  in  missions  of  sympathy  and  occasionally  of  "  material" 
comfort,  in  articles  of  food  banished  by  "  orders  from  Wash 
ington"  from  the  slop-boards  of  our  cook-house.  Whatever 
thoughts  I  have  of  the  cruel  despotism  at  Washington  and  of 
those  masses  of  population  subject  to  it,  my  heart  must  always 
retain  grateful  and  faithful  memories  of  those  few  in  a  strange 
land  who  administered  to  my  sorrow,  and  dared  an  expression 
of  sympathy  for  me,  when  in  the  bonds  of  prison  and  disease. 

I  have  a  valued  and  interesting  correspondence  with  some 
noble  ladies  in  Boston,  whom  I  have  never  seen,  but  whose 
names  are  known  to  several  of  the  prisoners  here,  who  have 
had  various  tokens  of  their  sympathy.  The  correspondence  in 
my  case  commenced  with  a  present  of  delicious  fruit,  to  which 
the  card  of  the  donor  was  attached.  The  charity  of  these 
ladies,  and,  more  than  all,  the  sentiments  which  have  sweetened 
it,  are  treasured  in  the  hearts  of  many  prisoners  here,  and  they 
may  be  sure  that  when  the  name  and  freedom  of  our  beloved 
country  shall  no  longer  be  disputed,  their  deeds  will  find  a 
public  record  somewhere  and  be  rewarded  with  conspicuous 
gratitude. 

Before  this  war  I  had  lived  several  years  in  Washington 
and  in  New  York ;  but  from  all  the  herd  of  my  acquaintance 
in  the  North  I  have  not  yet  had  one  line  of  sympathy  or  of 
remembrance. 


354:  THE    THIRD    YEAE    OF   THE    WAK. 

Yet  I  have  had  letters  from  strangers — among  them  dear, 
noble  countrywomen  of  mine  in  the  enemy's  lines — which  have 
touched  my  heart  with  inexpressible  gratitude  and  pride. 

I  had  been  in  prison  but  a  few  days  when  I  received  from 

Mrs.  General ,  of  Kentucky,  a  stranger  to  me,  but  the  name 

of  whose  gallant  husband,  fallen  on  one  of  the  bright  fields  of 
the  war,  lives  in  the  glorious  memories  of  the  Confederacy,  a 
letter  of  sympathy,  subscribed,  "  a  sincere  though  unknown 
friend."  "  Do  you  need  aid  ?"  wrote  this  generous  lady.  "  And 
will  you  be  allowed  to  receive  any  from  your  friends  f  It 
would  be  a  pleasure  to  relieve  your  wants  as  far  as  we  can." 

Yesterday  I  received  a  letter  which  is  so  remarkable,  that  I 
cannot  forbear  transcribing  here  some  passages  from  it,  and 
taking  the  liberty  of  adding  the  name  of  the  writer — a  liberty, 
I  think,  which  a  grateful  memoir  must  admit,  unless  there  is 
good  reason  to  the  contrary  : — 

PRAIRIEVILLE,  PIKE  COUNTY,  MISSOURI,         ) 
June  12th,  1864.   ) 
MR.  EDWARD  A.  POLLARD  (of  Richmond,  Va.) : 

I  see  from  the  papers  that  you  are  a  prisoner  of  war  at  Fort 
"Warren.  All  prisoners  need  the  attention  of  their  friends. 
Though  entirely  unknown  to  you,  I  have  still  the  honor  to  be 
a  Virginian,  and  love  from  a  sense  of  duty  all  of  her  worthy 
sons.  If  you  need  money,  clothes,  or  any  thing,  write  imme 
diately  and  inform  me,  with  directions  to  whose  care  to  send 
them.  I  have  a  holy  veneration  for  my  Mother  State,  and  if 
I  failed  to  do  any  thing  in  my  power  for  her  brave  sons,  I 
would  feel  that  I  had  neglected  a  religious  duty.  All  of  my 
relatives,  except  my  father's  immediate  family,  are  in  the  "  Old 
Dominion."  I  have  had  a  brother  at  Camp  Chase,  and  a 
cousin  at  Johnson's  Island,  and  have  cause  to  know  how  com 
forting  any  sympathy  is  to  the  prisoner.  Do  not  forget  that 
you  have  many  warm  friends  in  Missouri,  and  in  myself  a  faith 
ful  one.  So  do  not  fail  to  let  me  know  if  you  wish  any  thing. 
I  think,  sir,  that  we  partake  of  the  independent  spirit  of  our 
mother,  and  do  not  like  to  receive  any  thing  from  strangers ; 
but  you  know  Virginians  are  not  strangers,  but  brothers  and 

sisters  wherever  they  are  found 

KATE  B.  WOODROOF. 


APPENDIX.  355 

Sweet  lady,  God  bless  you !  I  wrote  that  I  was  in  no  such 
need  as  to  tax  the  generosity  of  friends ;  that  the  letter  of  my 
fair  correspondent  was  itself  a  treasure ;  that  I  was  proud  to 
have  such  a  countrywoman.  To  think  that  she  had  written 
to  a  desolate  prisoner  thus  from  her  distant  home,  with  that 
hearty  and  persistent  offer  of  assistance,  so  unlike  cheap  sym 
pathy,  so  really  anxious  to  oblige !  "Well  may  "Virginia  her 
self  be  proud  of  such  a  daughter !  The  fragrance  of  many  a 
womanly  deed  breathes  through  the  gorgeous  wreath  Virginia 
has  entwined  in  this  war,  and  among  these  we  would  place 
this  tribute  of  filial  love  from  distant  Missouri. 


June  18. — The  following  is  an  excellent  pkture.  of  present 
Yankee  society,  which  I  came  across  to-day,  in  an  odd  book, 
which  gave  some  account  of  France  under  the  rule  of  Henry 
III.: 

"  There  was  no  more  truth,  no  more  justice,  no  more  mercy.  To  slan 
der,  to  lie,  to  rob,  to  wrench,  to  steal ;  all  things  are  permitted  save  to  do 
right  and  speak  the  truth." 

What  a  perfect  delineation  of  Washington  and  JSTew  York 
at  the  present  day  ! 


June  19. — The  third  Sabbath  in  my  granite  prison.  Some 
one  has  had  such  care  for  the  souls  of  Confederate  prisoners  as 
to  have  distributed  among  us  a  number  of  tracts,  issued  by  the 
American  Tract  Society,  28  Cornhill,  Boston.  I  have  just  fin 
ished  reading  one  of  them,  entitled  "  Love  Your  Enemies" — 
a  characteristic  specimen  of  the  Puritan  Christianity  of  the 
Yankee,  the  blasphemy  and  brag  of  which  have  filled  me  with 
horror  and  disgust. 

The  writer,  evidently  one  of  the  pious  spitfires  of  New  Eng 
land,  sets  out  with  a  terrible  denunciation  of  the  Confederacy, 
and,  with  characteristic  regard  for  historical  truth,  describes 
the  Confederates  as  outraging  our  [Yankee]  "kindred,"  and 
"lurking  in  traitorous  ambush  at  our  [Yankee]  door-posts." 
He  then  speaks  of  "  their  threats  and  curses,  their  outbursts  of 


356  THE  THIRD  TEAK  OF  THE  WAR. 

furious  fiend-like  passion."  After  this  very  Christian  vituper 
ation,  and  merciless  vindication  of  the  truth  of  history,  our 
clerical  friend  encounters  the  question,  how  it  is  possible  to 
pray  that  the  wrath  of  the  Lord  be  poured  out  upon  the  Con 
federates,  and  yet  to  retain  Christian  love  for  the  persons  of 
their  rebellious  neighbors.  And  he  surmounts  the  difficulty 
bravely.  The  cause  of  the  Yankee  is  "  the  cause  of  God"  and 
to  pray  for  the  destruction  of  the  enemies  of  the  Yankee  is  "  to 
divest  themselves  of  all  personal  and  merely  human  considera 
tions"  for  God's  glory,  and  to  sink  the  love  of  the  neighbor  in 
the  higher  duties  of  the  Divine  service.  This  morsel  of  pious 
logic  and  Puritan  charity  is  put  in  the  following  words : 

"David  recognized  in  his  foes  the  foes  of  Jehovah  and  his 
church,  and  planting  himself  by  the  very  side  of  God,  divinely 
inspired,  he  invoked  the  most  terrible  calamities,  the  most 
complete  ruin,  even  eternal  evil,  upon  his  adversaries.  Our 
cause,  too,  is  the  cause  of  God ;  our  foes  the  opposers  of  those 
principles  of  eternal  truth,  justice,  and  righteousness,  which 
sustain  the  divine  administration.  But  do  we  stand,  where 
David  did,  in  unity  with  the  divine  mind  and  will,  moved  by 
the  same  pure  and  holy  impulses,  equally  divested  of  all  per 
sonal  and  merely  human  considerations?  If  so,  then  we,  too, 
in  calm,,  holy,  fervent  supplication,  may  pray,  '  Render  unto 
our  neighbors  sevenfold  into  their  bosom  the  reproach  where 
with  they  have  reproached  thee,  O  Lord  !' ' 

Has  any  one  ever  found  any  thing  more  characteristic  of 
New  England  Christianity  than  this  passage?  a  mixture  of 
old  Puritan  self-righteousness  and  modern  lying,  that  might 
refresh  the  appetite  of  the  Infernal.  Concocted,  probably,  by 
some  fellow  who  nurses  his  white  dainty  flesh  with  lace  neck 
cloths,  and  spits  pious  venom  in  some  fashionable  church. 


July  1. — I  was  allowed  to-day  to  see  a  physician 

from  Boston,  who  accompanied  my  sister,  under  a  permit  from 
General  Dix. 

This  visit  has  been  a  precious  occasion  to  me,  and,  I  trust, 
has  improved  my  resolution  to  suffer  with  as  little  complaint 
as  possible.  Even  imprisonment  is  not  without  its  compensa- 


APPENDIX.  357 

tions  and  uses ;  is  not  necessarily  a  blank  in  one's  life.  We 
may  learn  noble  virtues  in  prison,  for  it  is  a  severe  school 
where  we  are  taught  to  moderate  our  desires  and  to  confront 
misfortunes  with  that  defiant  patience,  which  more  than  all 
constitutes  the  force  of  character  and  tests  the  man. 

"  To  suffer,  as  to  do,  our  strength  is  equal." 

There  is  compensation,  too,  in  the  reflection  that  my  im 
prisonment  is  in  the  name  of  my  country,  and  that  what  I  suf 
fer  is  a  sacrifice  for  it.  It  is  true  we  all  of  us  must  contrib 
ute  to  the  cause  of  our  country  in  some  form  or  other — and 
how  little  have  I  ever  contributed  to  it,  that  I  should  be 
grudge  this  suffering  in  its  name,  and  how  many  more  deserv 
ing  than  myself,  with  mutilated  limbs,  or  broken  hearts,  have 
yet  virtue  to  thank  God  that  they  have  been  able  thus  to  tes 
tify  their  principles!  These  are  salutary  thoughts,  which 
should  chasten  my  pride  and  impatience,  and  teach  me  how 
little  and  unworthy  I  am,  to  resent  the  fortune  which  has 
made  me  a  prisoner. 


Fourth  of  July. — Captain  Murden,  of  South  Carolina,  a  fel 
low  prisoner,  has  celebrated  the  day  by  the  following  lines, 
entitled  "The  Confederate  Oath,"  which  we  have  all  "  taken.'5 
It  is  given  as  a  specimen  of  the  Fort  Warren  Muse,  and  as  a 
sentiment  appropriate  to  the  day  we  celebrate : — 

Aye,  raise  aloft  that  gory  pall  f,  T  P   t> 

Of  Freedom's  bleeding  corse,        // 
While  craven  minions,  shouting  all,!/ 

Its  infamy  indorse. 
Gape,  cannon,  your  infernal  throat^, 

Belch  at  the  despot's  word,  CA  J  ,  T  JjY  \  I>  \r 

hile  Liberty's  e™irino-  notes 


While  Liberty's  expiring  notes 

Are  in  thine  echoes  heard. 
Blow  winds,  from  these  accursed  walls, 

And  to  the  world  proclaim 
How  wronged,  insulted,  Freedom  calls 

To  stay  the  branding  shame. 
Tell  of  the  rights  our  fathers'  claimed, 

And  claiming,  dared  maintain, 
Tell  of  the  deeds  in  history  famed, 

Which  broke  the  tyrant's  chain. 


358  THE  THIED  YEAE  OF  THE  WAE. 

Then,  tell  again,  how  Avarice  sapped 

The  fame  to  Freedom  reared : 
How  Lust,  in  false  religion  wrapped, 

To  boasting  minds  appeared. 
And  let  thy  breath  the  poison  bear 

Of  Puritanic  guile, 
And  in  thy  voice  let  nations  hear 

The  howlings  of  the  vile. 
Aye,  hoist  that  foul,  dishonored  flag, 

While  truckling  millions  bow, 
And  kiss  the  rod,  the  chain,  and  gag, 

Upheld  in  terror  now. 

And  we,  who  see,  and  hear,  and  feel, 

That  mockery  of  this  day, 
Shall  we,  in  servile  cringing,  kneel, 

And  own  the  despots'  sway  ? 
No,  by  the  rights  our  sires  won, 

No,  by  the  rights  we  claim, 
No,  while  our  wrathful  blood  may  run, 

No,  in  our  country's  name, 
No,  by  our  fields  of  wasted  grain, 

No,  by  our  smoking  walls, 
No,  by  the  Vandal-trodden  plain, 

Our  sack'd  and  ruined  halls ! 
Bring  from  each  corner  of  the  land 

The  demon's  waste  and  wreck, 
Bring  murderous  axe,  and  smoking  brand, 

The  hateful  pile  to  deck. 
Then  think  upon  the  widow's  wail, 

Think  of  the  maiden's  tear, 
Think  of  each  wrong  the  Southern  gale 

Brings  to  your  sickened  ear : 
Then  by  each  smoke ;  then  by  each  thrust 

Which  caused  one  anguished  thrill ; 
Then  by  each  deed  of  hate  and  lust, 

Each  heart  recorded  ill : 
Then  swear  while  life's  red  current  flows, 

While  flint  can  yield  the  spark, 
While  arm  can  nerve  for  vengeful  blows, 

Or  bullet  reach  its  mark, — 
New  England's  lust,  New  England's  greed, 

Need  seek  no  Southern  sky, 
While  powder  burns,  or  knife  can  bleed, 

Who  seeks  our  soil  must  die  1 


APPENDIX.  359 


CHAPTEE  YI. 

JOURNAL  NOTES  CONTINUED. — Life  in  the  Casemates. — Some  of  the  Secrets  of 
Foreign  "  Neutrality." — Southern  "  Aristocracy." — My  Boston  Benefactress. — Lin- 
colniana. — Massachusetts  "  Chivalry." 

JULY  5. — We  have  quite  a  mixed  lot  of  prisoners  here. 
The  officers  and  crews  of  the  Atlanta  and  Tacony  are  confined 
here,  and  to  Captain  Webb  of  the  first,  and  Lieutenant  Reed  of 
the  latter,  I  am  particularly  indebted  for  much  entertainment 
and  kindness.  To  tell  the  truth,  it  is  not  often  you  hear  intel 
ligent  conversation  among  associates  in  a  prison,  or  obtain  any 
experience  of  small  courtesies ;  selfishness,  stupidity,  vacancy 
of  mind,  are  most  frequently  the  results  of  the  harsh  and  scanty 
life  within  the  casemates,  unless  one  should  happen  to  have 
been  bred  a  gentleman,  for  truly  no  man  is  "  born  "  such. 

But  I  have  been  most  fortunate  in  my  mess,  and  I  have  yet 
to  notice  any  instance  of  bickering  or  of  selfish  overreaching 
among  us.  Yet  we  have  plenty  of  pleasant  controversy.  My 
good  friend,  Marrs  (engineer  of  the  ill-fated  Cuba),  keeps  us  all 
alive  with  his  constant  intention  of  "  raising  h — 1 " :  a  vague 
threat  which  I  have  never  yet  seen  him  put  into  practical  exe 
cution,  for  he  really  has  an  amiable  and  generous  sentiment  for 
everything  but  the  Yankee.  Captain  Black  reads  the  news 
paper  aloud  every  night,  and  Marrs  punctuates  with  senten 
tious  exclamations.  Then  we  have  the  invariable  quarrel  of 
each  night  about  shutting  windows  and  putting  out  the  lights, 
two  proceedings  which  .always  give  rise  to  differences  of 

opinion.  Marrs  must  have  everything  read  of  the  "  d d 

Yankees,"  or  must  have  Captain  Murden  recite  his  composition 
of  patriotic  poetry  for  the  day,  before  he  can  compose  himself 
to  sleep,  which  he  at  last  does  with  objurgations  not  to  be  men 
tioned  to  ears  polite. 


360  THE  THIRD  YEAR  OF  THE  WAR. 

July  6. — There  are  various  devices  here  to  induce  prisoners 
to  swallow  the  oath  of  Yankee  allegiance.  The  most  infamous 
is  that  practised  upon  the  foreigners,  who  have  been  taken  on 
privateers  or  running  the  blockade,  and  who,  through  the 
offices  of  their  consuls  in  New  York  and  Boston,  have  been 
offered  their  release  on  condition  of  taking  the  Yankee  oath  of 
allegiance,  and  clinching  it  by  enlistment  in  the  Yankee  army 
or  navy. 

In  fact,  there  appear  to  be  none  of  the  rights  of  alienage  re 
cognized  in  Yankee  jurisdiction.  One  must  " holler"  for  the 
Union  under  all  circumstances.  In  connection  with  these  com 
pulsory  tests  applied  to  foreigners,  who  are  in  the  unfortunate 
category  of  blockade-runners,  &c.,  I  may  supply  the  following 
paragraph,  which  I  read  some  days  ago  in  a  letter  from  "Wash 
ington,  published  in  a  New  York  paper  : 

"  It  appears  that  the  rebel  authorities  again  allow  aliens  to  pass  through 
their  lines,  as  quite  a  large  number  of  these  refugees  have  reached  this  city 
within  the  past  few  days.  To-day  eighteen  presented  themselves  at  the 
provost-marshal's  office,  and  took  the  oath  of  allegiance." 

So,  these  men,  whose  neutral  rights  had  been  respected  in 
the  Confederacy,  find,  on  reaching  Washington,  that  it  is 
necessary  or  convenient  for  them  to  take  .the  Yankee  oath  of 
allegiance.  It  would  seem,  indeed,  that  the  Yankees  have 
assumed  the  task  of  annexing  all  nations  to  their  political  for 
mulas,  overriding  all  the  predilections  of  foreigners  and  con 
trolling  the  sympathies  of  the  world.  The  arbiters  of  civiliza 
tion,  the  bullies  of  all  Christendom,  the  coxcombs  of  creation, 
they  demand  everything  to  give  way  as  Mr.  Lincoln  "  runs  his 
machine  "  and  dispenses  the  wisdom  and  bounty  of  "  the  best 
government  the  world  ever  saw." 


Julyl. — "We  had  quite  a  discussion  in  our  mess  to-day.  One 
of  the  company  remarked  that  in  South  Carolina  a  mechanic 
was  not  respected  as  he  should  be.  I  took  occasion  to  advance 
some  peculiar  opinions  of  my  own :  That  the  democracy  at  the 
North  was  an  utterly  false  one,  being  an  insolent  assertion  of 


APPENDIX.  361 

equality,  a  sort  of  "  d — n  you,  I  am  as  good  as  you  are,"  which 
placed  two  classes  in  society  in  an  exasperated  and  bitter  con 
test  that  was  constantly  going  on  in  Yankeedom  beneath  the 
outward  semblances  of  its  social  laws;  that  this  insolent  demo 
cracy  was  especially  the  product  of  free  schools,  that  educated 
the  population  just  to  the  point  of  irreverence  and  egotism ; 
that  in  the  South  there  was  to  be  found  the  most  perfect  de 
mocracy  in  the  world ;  that  there  was  a  voluntary  and  tacit 
acknowledgment  of  distinctions  in  Southern  society  (hence  the 
conservatism  of  this  part  of  America),  and  that,  this  difference 
once  implied,  the  intercourse  between  the  different  classes  was 
unrestricted  and  genial,  with  a  pleasant  admission  of  equality 
in  all  respects  where  equality  was  to  be  properly  admitted. 
These  propositions  might  be  expanded  into  illustration  and 
argument  enough  to  make  a  book.  But  surely  any  one  who 
knows  anything  of  the  South  must  have  observed  the  easy  and 
pleasant  intercourse  between  its  social  classes,  in  which  the 
humblest  is  treated  with  polite  respect,  so  much  in  contrast  to 
those  insulting  assumptions  on  the  one  hand  and  browbeating 
on  the  other,  which  make  up  Yankee  society.  Where  a  labor 
ing  man  would,  in  the  North,  be  stopped  at  the  door  of  the 
rich  by  a  servant  and  held  at  arm's  length  in  any  intercourse 
the  patron  might  find  necessary  with  him,  in  the  South  he 
might  be  asked  to  dinner — certainly,  would  be  treated  with 
much  more  real  respect  than  by  the  aristocratic  Yankee  with 
whom  he  contests  the  claim  of  equality  and  fraternity. 


July  8. — I  have  received  to-day  a  gratifying  letter  from  my 
lady  friend  in  Boston.  She  writes  : 

"  Kemeinber  that  you  are  to  count  us  among  your  friends  ;  and  what  is 
the  use  of  friends,  if  you  will  not  give  them  the  privilege  of  ministering  to 
you  in  prison.  Send  to  us  for  any  thing  you  need.  We  are  of  the  practi 
cal  style,  and  our  fingers  and  feet,  as  well  as  our  heads  and  hearts,  are  at 
your  service." 

Such  testimonies  of  sympathy  illuminate  the  prison,  and  make 
us  think  more  kindly  of  the  world  outside. 


362  THE  THIRD  TEAR  OF  THE  WAR. 

July  14:. — The  Yankee  newspapers  we  have  got  here,  for  sev 
eral  days  past,  have  been  in  an  incessant  gabble  about  Early's 
and  Breckinridge's  invasion  of  Maryland.  Apropos^  here  is  a 
good  "  slap"  at  Massachusetts,  from  a  New  York  paper  : 

"  The  Boston  Journal,  in  a  fit  of  heroics,  wants  to  know  how  far  an 
invading  army  of  Confederates  could  march  into  Massachusetts.  That 
would  depend  upon  the  time  allowed  the  officials  of  that  State  to  visit  Ken 
tucky  and  recruit." 


APPENDIX.  363 


CHAPTER  VII. 

"  HAVE  WE  A  GOVERNMENT  ?"— A  Commentary  on  "  Eetaliation." 

JULY  15. — There  is  one  question  here  constantly  on  the  lips, 
or  in  the  meditations  of  the  prisoners.  It  is,  "Have  we  a 
Government  ?"  We  do  not  hear  of  any  thing  done  by  the 
Richmond  authorities  in  behalf  of  tens  of  thousands  of  Confed 
erate  prisoners,  and  we  are  left  starkly  and  desperately  to  the 
contingencies  of  the  future. 

"We  know  very  well  that  it  is  not  the  fault  of  our  Govern 
ment  that  an  exchange  of  prisoners  is  not  made.  Such  an 
exchange  has  been  estopped  by  the  choice  and  action  of  the 
Yankees ;  and  in  doing  so,  this  vile  and  sinister  people  have 
effected  one  of  the  most  barbarous  penalties  of  war — captivity. 
Such  a  penalty  is  opposed  to  the  spirit  and  humanity  of  the 
age  ;  in  civilized  war,  the  only  object  of  taking  prisoners  is  to 
exchange  them,  certainly  not  to  condemn  them  to  the  savage 
horrors  of  captivity. 

But,  then,  although  our  government  is  acquitted  of  the  non- 
execution  of  the  cartel,  and  this  brutal  infraction  of  civilized 
usage,  why  does  it  not  manifest  what  concern  it  can  for  its 
prisoners,  in  some  substantial  acts  of  retaliation  for  the  intoler 
able  and  terrible  atrocities  attendant  on  their  imprisonment. 
This  is  where  the  question  pinches.  It  is,  with  respect  to  out 
rages  upon  its  prisoners  that  the  Confederate  Government  has 
most  abundant  occasion  and  opportunity  for  retaliation  ;  and  it 
is  with  respect  to  this  that  it  has  done  less  to  satisfy  justice  and 
vindicate  the  rights  of  a  belligerent. 

There  is  a  pitiable  page  of  sophistry  and  weakness  in  the 
records  of  this  war.  It  is  the  history  of  Jeflerson  Davis's  policy 
of  retaliation.  While  that  history  has  afforded  no  instance  of 
a  single  substantial  act  of  retribution,  it  is  replete  with  pretences 
of  such,  designed  to  conciliate  the  popular  demand  for  retal 
iation,  and  to  impose  upon  the  world  an  appearance  of  spirit. 


364  THE  THIRD  TEAR  OF  THE  WAR. 

These  pretences  have  been  silly  enough.  Some  days  ago  I 
read  in  the  newspapers,  that  the  authorities  at  Richmond  had 
placed  certain  Yankee  prisoners  in  a  house  in  Charleston,  in 
retaliation  for  the  attempted  bombardment  of  a  city  still  in 
habited  by  women  and  children.  What  nonsense  !  The  peril 
of  the  prisoners  is  imaginary,  when  women  and  children  walk 
the  streets  where  they  are  placed  without  fear ;  yet  it  is  a  con 
venient  text  for  the  Yankee  on  the  subject  of  "  rebel  barbar 
ities,"  and  an  occasion,  perhaps,  for  a  prejudice  against  us, 
wherein  we  profit  nothing. 

The  subject  of  Yankee  prisons  is  theme  enough  for  retaliation. 
There  are  in  this  fort,  condemned  to  solitary  confinement,  cer 
tain  Confederate  prisoners,  whose  terrible  doom  calls  loudly 
for  the  interposition  of  their  Government,  and  illustrates  how 
that  Government  has  stultified  itself  by  submission  to  the 
claims  of  the  Yankee  to  enact  the  part  of  magistrate  over  those 
whom  the  fate  of  war  has  placed  in  their  hands.  I  have  been 
enabled  to  obtain  some  facts  about  these  unhappy  men. 


CASE   OF   MAJOR   ARMESY,  &C. 


Major  Thomas  D.  Armesy  was  formerly  a  private  in  the 
Thirty-first  Virginia  regiment.  He  had  raised  a  company  in 
"Western  Virginia,  near  Clarksburg,  and  having  turned  this 
over  to  the  Confederate  service,  went  back  in  the  spring  of 
1863,  commissioned  to  raise  a  battalion  in  this  part  of  Virginia. 
William  F.  Gordon,  the  adjutant  of  his  old  regiment,  also  took 
a  part  in  this  recruiting  service,  and  was  commissioned  a  cap 
tain  in  Armesy's  battalion. 

In  April,  1863,  Armesy,  Gordon,  and  Lieutenant  Harris, 
were  captured  by  the  Yankees  in  the  houses  where  they  were 
staying.  They  had  taken  the  precaution  to  destroy  their  mus 
ter  rolls,  and  to  appoint  a  rendezvous  for  their  recruits  outside 
of  the  enemy's  lines  of  occupation. 

Armesy  and  Davis  were  taken  to  Fort  Norfolk  (near  Nor 
folk,  Va.),  thence  to  Fortress  Monroe,  apparently  for  exchange; 
when  they  were  suddenly  ordered  back  to  Fort  McHenry  in 
October,  1863. 

They  were  tried  by  a  Yankee  court-martial.     They  were 


APPENDIX.  365 

charged  with  recruiting  in  "Western  Virginia,  a  part  of  the 
Southern  Confederacy,  represented  in  its  Congress,  and,  though 
overrun  by  the  enemy,  yet,  legally,  by  the  act  of  secession  of 
the  State,  and  by  the  express  organization  of  our  revolution, 
within  the  Confederate  jurisdiction.  There  was  but  a  single 
specification  to  the  charge  :  The  official  order  of  the  War  De 
partment  of  the  Confederate  States,  authorizing  the  recruiting 
service  in  which  Armesy  had  been  engaged.  On  this  charge  and 
specification  Armesy  and  Davis  were  sentenced  to  fifteen  years1 
imprisonment  at  hard  labor. 

A  yet  more  terrible  judgment  was  reserved  for  Gordon,  who 
had  also  been  confined  at  Fort  McHenry.  He  was  sentenced 
to  be  shot.  On  the  day  appointed  for  his  execution  in  the 
fort,  the  brave  Confederate  had  taken  leave  of  his  family,  and 
had  been  marched  out,  carrying  his  shroud  under  his  arm, 
with  a  dauntless  air,  when  an  order  came  from  Washington, 
revoking  the  sentence. 

The  sentence  of  Armesy  and  Davis  was  executed  by  putting 
them  to  the  dirtiest  and  vilest  work  in  the  fort,  cleaning  sinks, 
&c.  They  were  subsequently  transferred  to  Fort  Delaware, 
and  thence  they  were  brought  to  this  fort ;  their  sentence  be 
ing  so  far  modified  as  to  require  them  to  serve  out  their  term 
of  fifteen  years  in  solitary  confinement. 


THE   THIRD   YEAR   OF   THE   WAR. 


CHAPTEE  VIII. 

AN  EPISODE  IN  PRISON.— A  Council  in  the  Casemates. 

JULY  16. — There  has  been  a  commotion  in  the  prisoners'  quar 
ters  in  this  fort  to-day  that  so  far  exceeds  the  even  routine  of 
our  days  that  it  is  entitled  to  a  separate  chapter  and,  indeed,  to 
a  train  of  important  reflection. 

It  appears  that  some  days  ago  the  Boston  Courier  had  pub 
lished  a  certain  report  that  Major  Cabot,  the  commandant 
here,  had  punished  Confederate  prisoners  by  compelling  them 
to  carry  billets  of  wood  on  the  ramparts.  The  report  was  un 
true.  It  was  contradicted  by  Major  Cabot  in  the  Journal. 
Thus  the  affair  had  passed  out  of  mind  when  the  following  ex 
traordinary  publication,  in  the  worst  Abolition  paper  in  Bos 
ton,  fell  upon  us  this  morning  like  a  bomb-shell — 

FOKT  WAKREN,  July  13,  1864. 
MAJOR  S.  CABOT: 

DEAR  '  SIR,  we  were  truly  mortified  this  evening  on  reading 
the  Boston  Journal^  that  you  had  been  obliged  to  deny  the 
slanderous  attack — evidently  intended  upon  your  character — 
this  being  the  only  fort  in  Boston  harbor  wherein  "  Confed 
erate  prisoners"  are  confined.* 

We  feel  it  not  only  a  duty,  but  as  an  act  of  justice  to  your 
self  to  deny  emphatically  the  truthfulness  of  the  communica 
tion  which  appeared  in  the  Courier  of  yesterday,  over  the  sig 
nature  of  W.  J.  F.,  purporting  to  be  founded  "  upon  the  most 
ample  authority."  On  the  contrary,  there  are  a  very  large 
number  of  "  Confederate  prisoners"  who  have  been  under  your 
charge  for  more  than  twelve  months,  and  we  have  always  re 
ceived  at  your  hands  nought  but  kindness  and  every  attention 
and  privilege  consistent  with  the  proper  duties  of  your  posi 
tion.  I  have  been  requested  by  the  prisoners  to  state  that  if 
you  deem  it  necessary,  you  are  at  liberty  to  publish  this  letter. 
In  behalf  of  the  prisoners  under  your  charge,  I  have  the 
honor  to  be,  very  respectfully,  yoursr  &c., 

-,  Prisoner  of  "War. 


APPENDIX.  367 

The  fact  was,  that  the  prisoner  who  had  composed  for  the 
Yankee  press  this  compound  of  very  objectionable  grammar 
and  gratuitous  eulogy  had  done  so  on  the  responsibility  of  not 
more  than  three  prisoners  in  the  fort,  the  remaining  hundred 
or  so  being  entirely  ignorant  of  this  preparation  of  gratuitous 
incense  to  our  jailors.  I  have  suppressed  the  name  of  the 
author  of  the  communication,  from  a  firm  conviction,  shared 
by  all  the  prisoners  with  whom  I  have  conversed,  that  he 
acted  contrary  to  his  better  nature ;  that,  though  thoughtless, 
he  was  a  faithful  and  zealous  Confederate  ;  and  that  he  had 
been  misled  by  interested  advice  into  something  worse  than  a 
faux  pas. 

The  whole  day  has  been  one  of  excited  criticism  and  sage 
pow-wow  on  this,  our  unexpected  appearance,  in  Yankee 
prints.  After  much  consultation,  the  subjoined  letter  was  pre 
pared  for  publication  in  a  Boston  paper,  but  was  withheld 
from  it,  since  the  writer  of  the  obnoxious  piece  agreed  to  dis 
claim  publicly  the  authority  he  had  assumed,  to  represent  the 
prisoners  in  the  fort  [which  he  afterwards,  I  believe,  did]. 
While,  therefore,  it  was  not  deemed  necessary  to  publish  in 
the  Boston  newspapers  the  following  expression  of  opinion, 
yet  the  prisoners  who  signed  it  desired  that  it  should  be  pre 
served  and  placed  on  appropriate  record,  as  a  testimony  of 
their  sense  of  propriety  and  duty  in  the  general  matter  of  the 
behavior  of  prisoners.  I  have,  therefore,  introduced  it  here, 
with  the  names  of  its  subscribers,  as  a  record  of  Fort  Warren, 
that  belongs  to  the  Confederacy. 

4 

FOKT  WAEEEN,  BOSTON  HAEBOE,  July  16,  1864. 
To  THE  EDITOR  OF  THE  BOSTON  JOUENAL: 

SIR:  We,  the  undersigned,  Confederate  prisoners  in  Fort 
Warren,  have  noticed  with  great  surprise,  a  statement  ad 
dressed  by ,  prisoner,  &c.,  to  Major  Cabot,  and 

published  by  that  officer  in  the  Journal,  stating  "  on  behalf  of 
the  prisoners,"  &c.,  that  "we"  were  "truly  mortified"  at  a 
certain  "  slanderous  attack "  in  the  Courier,  concerning  that 
officer's  treatment  of  prisoners,  and  proceeding,  after  these  re 
grets,  to  contradict  the  same.  In  making  this  statement,  Mr. 
— did  not  consult  us ;  did  not  inform  us ;  and  does  not 
represent  us.  We,  therefore,  request  that  you  will  grant  us 


363 


THE    THIRD    TEAR    OF   THE    WAR. 


the  same  favor  in  your  columns  afforded  to  Major  Cabot,  to 
correct  what  you  have  published,  and  to  say  that  we  repudiate 

the  statement  Mr. has  assumed  to  make  in  our  behalf. 

We  do  this  because  this  statement  refers  to  a  matter  entirely 
between  Major  Cabot  and  his  accuser,  with  which  we  have 
nothing  to  do ;  because  there  is  no  occasion  on  our  part  for  ex 
planation — still  less  for  sentiment — in  a  matter  for  which  we  are 
not  responsible  and  with  which  we  have  nothing  to  do  ;  and  be 
cause — solely  from  our  self-respect,  without  reference  to  the 
merits  or  demerits  of  the  case  in  hand,  without  design  either  to 
cast  an  injurious  reflection  upon  Major  Cabot,  or  to  bestow  a 
eulogy  upon  him — we  are  so  far  sensible  of  the  delicacy  of  our 
position  as  prisoners  that  we  cannot  see  the  propriety  of  our  in 
terfering  as  volunteers  in  a  newspaper  controversy,  making  our 
selves  the  uncalled  for  panegyrists  of  any  man,  and  putting  our 
selves  unnecessarily  and  indecorously  before  an  invidious  public. 


JOHN  W.  CAREY,  c.  s.  N. 
J.  GILLIAN  KING,  c.  s.  N. 
T.  L.  WRAGG,  c.  s.  N. 
JAMES  H.  HOGGINS. 
JAMES  J.  SPEAR,  c.  s.  A. 
A.  L.  DRAYTON,  c.  s.  N. 
JAMES  R.  MILBURN. 
S.  F.  MARSHALL. 
A.  H.  B.,  c.  s.  A. 
W.  D.  ARCHER,  c.  s.  A. 
CHAS.  W.  DELOUR,  c.  s.  A. 

D.  W.  S.  KNIGHT. 
JAMES  McLEOD,  c.  s.  A. 
DANIEL  MOOR. 
ROBERT  HUNT. 

A.  STEWART. 

Jos.  M.  HERTWOOD,  c.  s.  N. 

JAMES  P.  HAMBLETON,  of  Ga. 

C.  T.  JENKINS,  Fla. 

JOSEPH  LEACH,  New  Orleans,  La. 

E.  0.  MURDEN,  Charleston,  S.  C. 


EDW'D  A.  POLLARD. 
W.  W.  AUSTIN. 

W.  McBLAIS,  C.  S.  N. 

J.  A.  PETERS,  c.  s.  N. 

W.  A.  WEBB,  c.  s.  N. 

CHAS.  W.  MILBURN. 

G.  H.  ARLIDGE,  LIEUT,  c.  s.  N. 

C.  W.  READ,  LT.  c.  s.  N. 

W.  B.  MICON,  ASST.  PAY'R,  c.  s.  N. 

E.  H.  BROWNE,  c.  s.  N. 

J.  A.  G.  WILLIAMSON,  c.  s.  N. 
Jos.  S.  WEST,  c.  s.  N. 
THOS.  B.  TRAVERS,  c.  s.  N. 

F.  B.  BEVILLE,  c.  s.  N. 
THOS.  L.  HERNANDEZ. 
JOHN  E.  BILLUPS,  c.  s.  ff. 

F.  N.  BONNEAU,  C.  S.  A. 

R.  H.  GAYLE,  c.  s.  N. 

J.  M.  VERNON. 

THOMAS  MARR,  Mobile,  Ala. 

AUGUSTUS  P.  GIRARD,  Mobile,  Ala. 


The  unpleasant  occurrences  of  to-day  have  recalled  some 
questions  which  have  frequently  been  present  to  my  mind, 
with  respect  to  the  proper  behavior  of  men  who  occupy  the 


APPENDIX.  369 

unfortunate,  and,  in  many  senses,  trying  and  delicate  position 
of  prisoners  of  war.  It  is  certainly  just  and  becoming  that 
prisoners  should  recognize  the  kindness  and  courtesy  of  those 
who  keep  them  *  but  this  must  be  done  in  a  proper  way,  and 
on  a  proper  occasion,  certainly  not  by  the  disgusting  methods 
of  a  puff,  or  for  the  selfish  and  contemptible  gain  of  the  ene 
my's  favor.  Justice  can  be  done  even  to  an  enemy,  and  it  is 
only  a  base  spirit  that  has  recourse  to  falsehood  and  libel  for 
its  miserable  revenge. 

I  think  it  is  Eousseau,  in  his  "  Confessions,"  who  tells  of 
some  person  who,  after  breaking  with  a  friend,  went  through 
the  community,  announcing :  "  Listen  neither  to  this  person 
nor  myself,  when  speaking  of  each  other;  for  we  are  no  longer 
friends."  The  Frenchman  claims  this  as  magnanimous.  JSTot 
so.  A  candid  and  honorable  person  can  fulfil  exactly  and 
severely  the  obligations  of  truth  to  all  men,  and  the  confession 
that  he  and  his  enemy  are  equally  disreputable  in  their  state 
ments,  lowers  him  to  the  standard  of  that  enemy,  whatever  it 
may  be. 

In  these  pages,  I  have  made  it  a  point  to  recognize  what 
ever  kindness  has  been  shown  me,  although  I  have  had  no 
occasion  to  intrude  such  things  into  Yankee  newspapers. 

My  own  conception  of  the  proper  behavior  of  one  in  the 
condition  of  a  prisoner  of  war  is,  that  he  should  consult  the 
dignity  of  his  country,  keep  aloof  from  all  unnecessary  conver 
sation  or  contact  with  his  enemy,  and  preserve  a  simple  severi 
ty  of  manner,  which,  while  guarding  against  any  appearance 
of  subserviency,  equally  avoids  the  imputation  of  an  unman 
nerly  insolence.  For  I  have  perceived  that  there  are  two  ex 
tremes  to  be  shunned  in  the  behavior  of  prisoners.  One  is 
toadyism.  The  other,  and  not  less  contemptible,  is  that  brag 
gadocio  or  swagger  which  affects  to  be  patriotic  spirit ;  but, 
in  the  condition  of  a  prisoner,  and  under  the  protection  which 
that  affords,  is  really  nothing  more  than  a  display  of  venture 
some  cowardice  and  native  vulgarity.  It  is  not  necessary,  for 
a  prisoner  to  show  his  "  Southern  spirit,"  that  he  should  quar 
rel  with  corporals  and  orderlies,  and  make  insolent  speeches 
to  the  officers  who  are  put  over  him.  Such  a  course  invites 
insult  and  betrays  the  qualities  which  pocket  it  with  indiffer 
ence. 

24 


370  THE   THIED   YEAR   OF   THE   WAR. 

In  media  tutissimus  ibis.  The  prisoner  of  war  must  recog 
nize  himself  as  in  the  temporary  power  of  his  enemy,  and  make 
a  becoming  submission.  But,  on  the  other  hand,  he  must 
never  omit  to  be  sensible  of  the  dignity  of  his  country  and 
himself,  or  forget  to  moderate  his  civility  with  the  considera 
tions  of  self-respect  and  propriety. 


APPENDIX.  371 


CHAPTEE  IX. 

JOURNAL  NOTES  EESIJMED.— Protest  to  Lord  Lyons.—"  Peace  Negotiations."— Com 
forting  Words  of  a  Boston  Lady. 

JULY  20. — I  have  ended  my  affair  with  Lord  Lyons.  I  re 
ceived  to-day  his  reply  to  a  letter  I  wrote  him  some  days  ago, 
and  have  rejoined,  which,  I  suppose,"  concludes  this  vexatious 
correspondence.  Copies  of  all  three  letters  are  annexed,  and  I 
shall  spare  myself  any  commentary  upon  them  in  my  journal. 

IN  PBISON,  AT  FOET  WAEEEN,  BOSTON  HAEBOE,         ) 

July  11,  1864.   } 

LOED  LYONS,  Envoy  Extraordinary,  &c.,  for  Her  Britannic  Majesty,  near 
Washington,  D.  C. : 

MY  LOKD  :  Will  you  please  inform  me  what  results  have 
been  reached,  or  proceedings  taken  by  Her  Majesty's  Govern 
ment,  with  reference  to  my  application  for  release  from  this 
prison,  by  virtue  of  the  protection  of  the  British  flag,  under 
which  I  was  taken  on  the  high  seas. 

I  was  brought  here  from  a  sick  bed,  at  an  hour's  notice,  arid 
have  been  afflicted  in  my  confinement  with  partial  paralysis ; 
and  I  am  sure  that  this  much  said  of  the  extremity  of  my  sit 
uation,  will  be  sufficient  to  acquit  me  of  importunity  in  again 
seeking  at  the  hands  of  your  Lordship  a  termination  of  my 
sufferings. 

I  have  the  honor,  &c.,  your  obedient  servant, 

EDWD.  A.  POLLARD. 


BEITISH  LEGATION,  WASHINGTON,  July  17,  1864. 
Sm :  Your  letter  of  the  llth  instant  reached  me  yesterday. 
In  reply  to  the  question  which  you  ask,  I  have  to  inform  you 
that  I  received  yesterday  afternoon  the  answer  of  Her  Majes 
ty's  Government  to  the  Despatches  which  I  addressed  to  them 
on  the  subject  of  the  capture  of  the  Greyhound,  and  in 
which  I  inclosed  copies  of  your  letters  to  me. 


372  THE  THIRD  YEAR  OF  THE  WAR. 

The  general  instructions  of  Her  Majesty's  Government  pre 
clude  my  interfering  without  special  orders  from  them,  in  be 
half  of  American  citizens  captured  on  board  British  vessels, 
seized  for  breach  of  blockade ;  and  as  Her  Majesty's  Govern 
ment  have  not,  on  the  present  occasion,  ordered  me  to  inter 
fere  in  your  behalf,  it  is,  of  course,  my  duty  to  abstain  from 
doing  so. 

I  am,  Sir,  your  obedient  servant, 

LYONS. 

EDWAED  A.  POLLAED,  Esq.,  Fort  Warren,  Boston. 


FOET  WAREEN,  BOSTON  HAEBOB,  July  22,  1864. 

LORD  LYONS,  Envoy  Extraordinary  for  Her  Britannic  Majesty,  near  Wash 
ington,  D.  0. : 

MY  LORD  :  I  thank  you  for  your  courtesy  in  replying  to  my 
different  letters.  I  have,  of  course,  no  further  claim  to  make 
upon  it  in  that  regard.  But  it  is  not  improper  that  I  should 
express  a  respectful  dissent  from  the  conclusion  you  have 
reached,  and  inform  you  that  whenever  released  from  prison, 
I  shall  prefer  to  the  Home  Government  of  Her  Majesty  a 
formal  claim  for  indemnity  for  a  damaging  and  cruel  impris 
onment,  to  which  I  consider  I  have  been  subjected  by  the 
failure  to  obtain  that  protection  under  a  neutral  flag,  which 
was  due  to  me  under  the  law  of  nations  and  that  of  humanity. 

I  cannot  concede,  what  is  certainly  a  novel  and  inhuman 
doctrine  in  international  law,  that  a  passenger  on  a  British 
vessel  which  has  broken  the  blockade,  is  so  tainted  in  the 
breach  of  blockade  that  he  may  be  taken  on  the  high  seas, 
under  the  neutral  flag,  as  human  prize  by  his  enemy.  If,  as 
I  am  left  to  understand,  my  Lord,  this  is  the  position  of  your 
Government,  it  follows  that  it  assents  to  a  system  of  Kidnap 
ping  under  its  flag  on  the  high  seas,  and  establishes  against 
itself  an  astounding  PRECEDENT.  For  if  I,  a  passenger,  was  a 
legal  prize  on  the  Greyhound,  then  the  British  passenger  in  the 
same  circumstances  is  equally  so,  being  no  more  protected  by 
the  British  flag  on  the  high  seas  than  I  should  be,  myself;  and 
if,  in  these  same  circumstances,  the  Englishman  does  not  share 
my  fate,  but  is  absolved  by  diplomatic  intercession,  this  is  the 


APPENDIX.  373 

favor  of  the  Yankee  Government,  which  may  at  any  time  be 
withdrawn. 

At  one  time  your  Lordship  wrote  me  that  you  had  re 
quested  my  release.  At  another  time,  you  write  you  cannot 
interfere  in  my  behalf  in  any  manner  whatever.  I  am  left  to 
imagine  that  there  is  no  other  cause  for  this  contradiction  than 
that  I  am  a  citizen  of  a  friendless  and  persecuted  Government, 
towards  which,  yours,  my  Lord,  professes  neutrality,  but,  I 
must  say,  practices  uniform  disfavor. 

"Whenever  restored  to  liberty  I  shall  have  full  opportunity 
to  testify  to  the  damage  of  my  imprisonment,  as  measure  of 
the  indemnity  I  shall  claim  from  the  British  Government. 
But  your  Lordship  will  already  perceive  from  the  enclosed 
copy  of  my  letter  to  the  Secretary  of  the  United  States  Navy, 
which  has  never  been  answered  or  noticed  by  him,  that  I  have 
in  vain  entreated  a  parole  on  account  of  my  health,  in  circum 
stances  which  appeal  not  only  to  sentiments  of  pity,  but  to  the 
lowest  senses  of  humanity. 

I  trust  that  your  Lordship  will  find  nothing  in  what  I  have 
written  inconsistent  with  the  high  and  courteous  consideration 
due  personally  to  yourself,  or  improper  to  be  communicated, 
as  I  desire,  to  your  Government  in  the  interests  of  justice  and 
humanity.  I  have  the  honor,  &c., 

Your  obedient  servant, 

EDW'D  A.  POLLARD. 

July  21. — It  appears  from  Yankee  newspapers  which  have 
got  into  the  casemates,  that  there  has  been  undertaken  at  Ni 
agara  Falls  a  peace  negotiation  after  the  style  of  Brandreth's 
pills  advertisements  ;  in  which  Horace  Greeley  is  intermediary 
of  the  Confederates,  George  1ST.  Saunders,  their  fugleman — a 
flippant  telegram  of  the  latter  to  James  Gordon  Bennett,  com 
mencing  the  proceedings.  It  is  to  be  hoped  there  is  nothing 
in  all  this :  that  the  Confederate  Government  has  not  for  the 
fourth  time  in  this  war,  when  there  is  already  a  standing  ten 
der  of  peace  and  an  abundant  definition  of  its  terms  in  the 
official  acts  and  expressions  of  Congress  and  the  Executive, 
sought  the  lack-door  of  Washington,  and  put  itself  in  a  posi 
tion  to  be  snubbed  and  cuffed  out  of  countenance  by  the  master 
of  the  "  White  House."  But  we  shall  see  how  much  of  an- 


374:  THE   THIRD   YEAR   OF   THE   WAR. 

thority  there  is  in  these  proceedings,  and  how  much  of  the  self- 
exhibition  of  notoriety-hunters  and  adventurers.  In  the  mean 
time  our  little  circle  here  entertains  itself  with  the  credulity  of 
the  Yankee  newspapers,  and  their  remarkable  fecundity  in  mak 
ing  the  wish  father  to  the  thought.  An  intelligent  friend  in  Bos 
ton  writes  me  this  evening,  in  dead  earnest,  "  terms  of  peace 
are  passing  over  the  wires,"  and  concludes  with  a  nourish  of 
piety  and  a  fervent  thanksgiving  for  the  happy  news. 


July  22. — "We  were  permitted  for  the  first  time  this  morn 
ing  to  walk  a  short  distance  on  the  island.  I  was  touched  to 
see  the  grave  of  a  Confederate  prisoner  beneath  the  ramparts. 

On  our  return  to  the  casemates  I  found  in  the  morning  mail 
a  comforting  and  sweet  letter  from  my  lady  friend  in  Boston. 
I  cannot  forbear  making  an  extract  from  it,  as  an  evidence  of 
the  kind  and  Christian  spirit  of  this  excellent  person : 

....  "I  can  well  understand  all  you  must  suffer  of  anxiety,  and  I  sym 
pathize  most  deeply  with  you.  It  is  hard  to  bring  one's  reason  and  philos 
ophy  to  the  rescue,  under  circumstances  of  such  peculiar  trial.  But,  my 
dear  friend,  when  these  fail,  faith  comes  in,  and  your  heart  will  be  lifted 
out  of  the  depths,  and  comforted  in  the  assurance  that  joy  will  surely  come 
after  a  night  of  darkness  and  desolation.  In  quietness  and  confidence  shall 
~be  your  strength;  and,  if  I  ask  you  to  trust,  I  am  sure  you  will  bear  with 
me,  and  not  think  I  am  preaching  to  you.  If  I  cared  less,  I  would  not  say 
this  to  you.  But  it  saddens  me  to  know  that  you  are  suffering  from  a  mis 
erable  feeling  of  illness  and  depression ;  and  in  my  longing  to  do  or  say 
something  to  comfort  you,  I  may  run — as  women  are  apt  to  do — into  what 
you  would  not  be  blamed  for  considering  pious  platitudes." 

"  I  hope  you  will  like  and  find  readable  '  Prescott's  Life.'  I  have  not 
read  it  yet,  but  promise  myself  that  pleasure.  If  you  will  give  the  volume 
we  send  a  place  in  your  library,  it  will  hereafter  recall  to  you  a  passage  in 
your  life,  which  you  may  then  not  be  entirely  unwilling  to  remember.  For 
this  reason,  I  trust  you  will  not  consider  it  a  burden,  that  I  ask  you  not  to 
return  it.  Eemember  if  you  think  of  any  thing  you  would  like,  you  are  to 
write  at  once  to  No.  —  for  it.  May  God  bless  you,  dear  friend." 


APPENDIX.  375 


CHAPTER  X. 

JOURNAL  NOTES  CONTINUED. — A  Yankee's  Confession :  Confederate  Civilization. — 
A  "  Map  of  Busy  Life"  in  Boston. —  .  .  .  Sickness  and  Eeflections  in  Prison : 
Female  Philosophy  on  the  "War. 

JULY  25. — The  Boston  Traveller  says  :  "  It  would  only  be  as 
the  vanquished  that  we  could  consent  to  Southern  '  independ 
ence.'  For  observe  what  that  c  independence'  would  mean.  It 
would  mean  our  abdication  of  the  position  of  the  American 
nation.  Let  but  the  Southern  Confederacy  be  acknowledged 
by  us,  and  it  would  succeed  immediately  to  the  place  formerly 
held  by  the  United  States,  in  the  estimation  of  the  world. 
It  would  become  the  first  power  in  North  America,  and,  if 
Maximilian  should  there  succeed,  Mexico  would  have  the 
second  place,  while  ours  should  be  the  third." 

The  Yankee  is  right.  ~VVe  Confederates  are  not  only  fighting 
in  this  war  for  independence,  but  for  the  front  rank  in  the  civi 
lization  of  this  continent,  and  for  a  destiny  of  power  as  well  as 
of  liberty.  Such  considerations  ennoble  the  contest.  Such 
prizes  should  stimulate  our  exertions. 

But,  apart  from  this  reflection,  there  is  an  important  truth 
involved  in  the  declaration  quoted  above,  which  the  Boston 
editor  unconsciously  admits  and  does  not  develope.  It  is  that 
the  South  represents  in  this  contest  the  better  part  of  Ameri 
can  civilization,  represents  superior  ideas,  represents  what  is 
most  valuable  in  the  traditions  of  the  past,  for  it  is  only  by 
such  titles  she  could  succeed  "  to  the  place  formerly  held  by 
the  United  States." 

And  here  opens  an  infinite  field  of  interest  to  the  intelligent 
inquirer.  A  comparison  :  on  the  one  side,  the  North — its 
false  and  phosphorescent  civilization — showy  free  schools,  the 
nests  of  every  social  pestilence — material  gauds — a  society  rot 
ten  with  insolent  agrarianism  called  "  democracy ;"  on  the 
the  other  side,  the  South — its  virtuous  simplicity — the  extra 
ordinary  intelligence  of  a  people  educated,  not  so  much  by 


376  THE  THIKD  TEAR  OF  THE  WAK. 

books,  as  by  free  institutions  and  by  a  peculiarly  free  inter 
change  of  mind  between  all  classes  of  society — a  popular  inno 
cence  of  mad  reforms,  "  isms,"  morbid  appetites,  unnatural 
vices,  and  other  products  of  New  England  free  schools — and, 
most  conspicuous  of  all,  a  true  and  noble  democracy  ;  of  which 
it  may  be  said  that,  though  the  white  laboring  men  of  the 
South  defers  to  those  who  are  his  superiors  (not  indeed  in 
rights,  but  in  the  various  particulars  of  society),  no  one  more 
quickly  or  effectually  than  he  resents  the  insult  or  contumely 
of  power.  Here  are  heads  of  reflection  for  a  volume ;  and 
somebody  should  write  it,  to  show  the  world  how  little  it 
knows  of  the  Confederacy,  and  how  much  it  has  been  deluded 
by  the  lies,  the  boasts,  the  Thrasonical  literature,  and  Puritani 
cal  pretence  of  the  Yankee. 


July  28. 

"  What  is  it,  but  a  map  of  busy  life." — COWPER. 

I  have  been  interested  to-day  in  a  specimen  of  Yankee  liter 
ature,  "  for  the  home-circle  ;"  the  Boston  Saturday  Evening 
Gazette,  an  excellent  specimen  of  that  ISTew  England  family 
literature  which  crops  out  in  hebdomadals,  illustrated  papers, 
and  other  tokens  of  literary  civilization. 

With  the  usual  amount  of  maudlin  stories  and  poetry  and 
reading  matter  for  the  home-circle,  the  Saturday  Evening 
Gazette  furnishes  its  readers  with  a  double-rate  advertisement, 
in  editorial  type,  on  the  terrors  of  masturbation.  This  adver 
tisement  of  a  Boston  quack  is  entitled  "  an  essay,"  and  placed 
in  a  conspicuous  part  of  the  paper,  where  it  is  impossible  for 
the  eye  to  avoid  the  nasty  mess  of  literature  and  obscenity. 

Let  us  look  at  the  editorial  columns.  First  we  have  the 
report  of  a  sermon  of  a  Boston  clergyman,  who  edifies  us  with 
this  discovery  in  the  history  and  politics  of  America  : 

"  The  war  of  1812  was  an  aggressive  war,  commenced  in  opposition  to 
the  wisdom  of  our  best  and  wisest  statesmen,  to  help  Napoleon  Bonaparte, 
the  bulwark  of  despotism  on  the  continent,  and  to  destroy  England,  the 
last  refuge  in  the  whole  world  for  the  oppressed." 

Following  this  instructive  sermon  are  editorial  "  puffs"  of 


APPENDIX.  O  i  < 

various  descriptions.  A  correspondent,  whose  palm  has  been 
evidently  greased,  gives  the  following  glowing  description  of 
the  attractions  of  a  watering-place,  which  is  evidently  a  candi 
date  for  public  favor,  with  "  its  polite  young  lady  waiters  :" 

"  The  tables  at  this  house  are  filled  with  the  choicest  viands  of  the  sea 
son,  and  being  all  short  tables,  each  family  may  enjoy  the  benefits  and 
pleasures  of  a  full  six-course  dinner,  as  the  ladies  ordinary,  at  three 
o'clock,  is  the  dress  dinner  of  the  day,  without  being  obliged  to  await  the 
tedious  formula  of  the  long-table  system.  The  attendants  of  the  house  are 
in  the  most  part  from  your  city,  and  we  believe  they  are  excellent  selec 
tions,  as  the  whole  house  has  that  air  of  sociability  and  contentment  so 
peculiar  to  houses  of  its  kind  in  the  old  Bay  State.  Hark !  I  hear  the 
gong  that  reminds  me  that  Putnam,  with  his  host  of  polite  young  lady 
waiters,  is  ready  to  serve  the  ladies'  ordinary,  where  I  can  witness  the 

best-dressed  ladies  and  enjoy  an  excellent  dinner,  all  at  the  same  time." 

* 

The  Gazette  is  not  sparing  in  its  puffs.  The  reader  is 
informed,  in  an  editorial  paragraph,  of  a  certain  person  who 
cleans  old  clothes  by  steam.  The  editor  vouches  for  him  that 
"  work  will  be  done  in  that  astute  style  for  which  he  is  re 
nowned." 

The  reader's  attention  is  next  called  to  a  camp-meeting  in 
the  vicinity  of  Boston.  "  These  gatherings,"  says  the  seduc 
tive  editor,  "  partake  somewhat  of  the  character  of  a  picnic, 
and  afford  to  many  almost  the  only  recreation  of  the  season" 
Who  would  not  visit  this  scene  of  New  England  piety,  after 
such  a  recommendation,  and  the  information  that  twenty-five 
cents  will  give  him  a  passage  on  the  u  unrivalled"  line  of 
Blowhard  &  Co.,  to  this  pleasant  Canaan  ! 

Following  the  editorial  matter,  is  an  advertisement  by  the 
column  of  miraculous  cures  of  almost  every  disease  imaginable, 
invariably  attested  by  the  certificates  of  "  clergymen."  These 
medical  advertisements  are  irrepressible,  effulgent,  and  difficult 
to  be  epitomized.  Here  we  have  Cancer  and  Canker  Syrup, 
Amboline  (for  the  hair),  White  Pine  Compound,  Howard's 
Vegetable  Syrup,  "  Ironized"  Catawba  Wine,  Indian  Emmen- 
nagogue,  Cherokee  Injection  (with  picture  of  big  Indian),  Dr. 
Wright's  Regenerating  Elixir,  Hungarian  Balsam,  Chloasma, 
Pabulum  Yitse,  Medical  Hydrokonia,  &c.,  &c. 

A  savory  list  of  quack  compounds  surely,  with  illustrative 
wood-cuts  of  women  covered  with  hair  by  the  use  of  "  Ambo- 


378  THE  THIRD  YEAR  OF  THE  WAR. 

line,"  etc.,  and  regenerated  skeletons  "  after  taking  ;'  the  ros 
trum,  and  all  attested  by  the  sacred  testimony  of  clergymen, 
and  other  grateful,  bedridden  saints,  who  invariably  send  for 
the  second  bottle.  But  all  the  medical  specialities  of  •'  the 
family  newspaper  "  are  put  to  blush  by  "  the  grand  specific." 
TTe  give  its  wonderful  discoverer  the  benefit  of  a  free  adver 
tisement  : 

It  cures : 

A.  ABSCESSES  on  the  surface,  or  deep  seated. 

B.  BOILS,  caused  by  over-heated  fluids. 

C.  CANCER,  however  malignant,  or  old. 

C.  CANKER,  of  all  kinds,  in  young  or  aged. 

C.  CARBUNCLES,  wherever  situated. 

I>.  DYSPEPSL\,  recent  or  long  standing. 

E.  ERYSIPELAS,  however  violent. 

E.  EVIL  (KING'S),  an  inherited  curse. 

E.  EVERY  KIND  of  humor  from  bad  blood. 

F.  FEVER  SORES  of  the  worst  kind. 

F.  FEMALE  WEAKNESSES  it  soon  relieves. 

F.  FATHERS  who  are  scrofulous  give  it  to  children. 

O.  GENERAL  DEBILITY,  from  any  cause. 

0.  GLANDULAR  SWELLINGS  of  the  neck,  &c. 
H.  HERPETIC  ERUPTIONS,  &c. 

1.  IRREGULARITIES  peculiar  to  Females. 
J.  JAUNDICE  in  all  its  complications. 

K.  KING'S  EVIL,  in  young  or  old. 

L,.  LOW  SPIRITS,  arising  from  Debility. 

HI.  MOTH,  Freckles,  Blotches. 

N.  NURSING  SORE  MOUTH. 

O.  OLD  SORES,  external  or  internal. 

P.  PILES,  Fistula,  &c. 

P.  PDIPLES,  on  face  or  arms. 

R.  RICKETS,  a  common  Children's  disease. 

R.  RHEUM  (SALT),  in  all  cases. 

S.  SCROFULA,  in  its  worst  stages. 

S.  SCURVY  of  all  kinds. 

S.  SCALD  HEAD  in  children. 

T.  TUMORS,  without  operations. 

U.  ULCERS,  from  whatever  cause. 

V.  VARIOUS  SKIN  AFFECTIONS. 

W.  WHITE  SWELLINGS,  &c.,  &c.,  &c. 

Our  medical  friend  exhausts  the  alphabet,  if  he  does  not  the 
list  of  "  ills  that  flesh  is  heir  to." 

We  shall  finish  the  entertainments  of  the  Saturday  Evening 
Gazette  with  the  following,  for  the  benefit  of  those  who  are 


APPENDIX.  5  79 

distressed,  or  "  crossed  in  love,"  or  whose  "  insides  "  are  at  all 
disarranged : 

I?IRS.  FRANCIS,  THE  INDEPENDENT,  WAKEFUL 
CLAIRVOYANT.— Is  successful  in  describing  past,  present,  and  forth 
coming  events,  all  kinds  of  business,  diseases  and  their  remedies.  Consulta 
tion,  one  dollar ;  questions  answered  for  half  price.  Her  Rose  Ointment,  for 
the  cure  of  every  kind  of  Humors,  Scrofula,  and  Cancers,  Sores  and  Bunches, 
Pimpled  Faces,  &c.,  25  cents  per  box,  and  also  a  certain  cure  for  Rheumatism, 
Dysentery,  Diarrhoea,  Coughs,  Sore  Throat,  Dropsy,  Gravel,  Liver  and  Kidney 
Diseases,  Dyspepsia,  and  all  Diseases  arising  from  Indigestion  and  Impurity  of 
the  Blood.  Her  Magnetism  is  soothing  and  strengthening  for  weak  and  dis 
eased  Nerves,  Neuralgia,  &c.  147  Court  Street,  Room  No.  1.  Hours  from  9 
to  12,  A.  M.,  and  from  2  to  6,  P.  M. ;  from  7  to  9,  Monday,  Wednesday,  and 
Friday  evenings.  Don't  ring. 


August  10. — I  have  written  nothing  in  my  journal  for  some 
days.  In  this  time  I  have  been  sick,  almost  unto  death,  in 
these  cruel  walls.  Tortured,  too,  from  day  to  day,  with  every 
rumor  and  shadow  of  hope  that  flits  through  the  prison,  about 
the  much-talked-of  and  long-deferred  exchange  of  prisoners. 
From  day  to  day  I  have  carried  the  heavy  burdens  of  sickness 
and  disappointment ;  but  though,  at  last,  the  strength  of  my 
body  has  rallied  a  little,  the  skill  of  the  physician  cannot  so 
easily  recover  the  mind.  I  can  imagine  a  brutal  submission 
to  imprisonment,  a  sullen  and  coarse  satisfaction  in  sleeping 
and  dreaming  away  a  life ;  but  there  are  nervous,  active  sen 
sibilities,  to  which  a  prison  is  more  terrible  than  death — men 
who  beat  their  souls  against  its  walls  and  live  in  a  frenzy  of 
mad  hopes.  Alas  for  the  fatal  gift  of  excessive  sensibility ! 
Add  to  this  «a  disease,  which  condemns  one  to  the  horrors  of 
the  bedridden  in  prison  and  fills  the  mind  with  gloom,  and 
the  circumstances  excuse  the  most  abject  degrees  of  distress. 

There  was  a  little  event  of  pleasant  surprise  in  my  life  to 
day.  A  box  containing  under-clothing,  and,  what  was  even 
better,  something  to  eat,  sent  all  the  way  from  the  distant 

prairies  of  Missouri,  marked  "  from  Kate  W ."  So  it  was 

from  no  strange  angel,  but  from  the  dear  Virginia  lady  who 
had  written  me  before,  and  who  would  take  no  refusal  of  her 
kind  disposition  to  serve  me.  I  accepted  the  gift  with  a  feel- 


380  THE  THIED  TEAK  OF  THE  WAK. 

ing  of  gratitude  in  my  heart,  which  my  pen  could  but  very 
poorly  express. 

I  have  often  had  occasion  to  meditate,  in  this  war,  upon  the 
abundant  humanity  it  has  shown  in  women.  The  fierceness 
of  its  strife  has  too  frequently  steeled  the  hearts  of  men,  and 
demoralized  much,  of  our  better  nature ;  selfishness,  mean  ex 
pediencies,  callousness,  a  certain  carelessness  for  the  misfor 
tunes  of  others,  since  misfortune  has  become  so  common,  have 
taken  much  of  the  place  of  the  charities  and  courtesies  of  so 
ciety.  But  in  these,  the  worst  ruins  of  war,  our  women,  stead 
fast  and  conspicuous  in  their  better  nature,  have  not  forgotten, 
even  in  the  sorrows  of  their  own  hearth-stones,  the  claims  of 
sympathy ;  but  everywhere,  in  the  hospital,  in  the  prison,  in 
every  walk  of  charity,  they  have  followed  the  impulses, 
and  illustrated  the  duties  of  tender  and  unfailing  humanity. 

And  then,  too,  how  much  superior  is  woman's  instinct  in 
taking  sides  in  such  a  war  than  the  troubled  reason  of  men. 
The  women  of  Maryland  and  of  Kentucky  would  give  an  over 
whelming  majority  for  the  Confederacy;  they,  even  while 
their  husbands  and  brothers  differ,  are  secessionists,  almost 
without  an  exception ;  and  even  here,  in  the  cities  of  the 
North,  there  are  innumerable  women  who  condole  with  the 
Confederacy,  are  in  love  with  its  virtues  and  sufferings,  and 
dare  expressions  of  sympathy  and  admiration  in  the  face  of 
prison,  exile,  and  all  the  inhuman  penalties  which  the  Wash 
ington  Government  and  its  minions  can  proclaim. 

There  are  some  questions  which  require  a  certain  complica 
tion  of  reason  ;  others  the  key  to  which  is  found  in  a  single 
direct  and  plain  thought.  Of  these  latter,  women  are  the  bet 
ter  judges.  I  have  seen  in  a  single  paragraph  in  a  woman's 
letter  in  a  New  York  paper,  the  questions  of  this  war  more 
effectually  disposed  of  than  in  all  the  sesquipedals  of  the  edi 
torial  columns,  and  all  the  four  years'  arguments  of  the  Yan 
kee  newspapers.  "  Men,"  says  this  female  critic  (she  is  talk 
ing  of  the  male  Yankee),  "  who  would  rather  run  than  fight, 
any  day,  and  who,  if  they  are  drafted,  will  hasten  in  abject 
terror  to  the  first  emigrant  ship  which  arrives,  to  secure  a  sub 
stitute,  talk  loudly  about  the  glory  of  fighting  and  dying  for 
one's  flag  and  one's  country.  What  is  one's  flag  and  one's 
country  ?  It  is  not  a  strip  of  rag,  or  a  little  dirt,  a  few  stones, 


APPENDIX.  381 

and  some  water;  these  can  be  found  anywhere,  and  demand 
no  especial  consideration.  If  our  country  and  our  flag  are 
dear,  it  is  because  they  represent  to  us  a  larger  proportion  of 
the  blessings  that  make  life  desirable  than  can  be  found  else 
where.  If  these  are  forcibly  taken  away  from  us,  if  peace  is 
gone,  if  liberty  is  gone,  if  friends  are  gone, — if  home  and 
plenty  are  gone,  what  is  the  country  and  the  flag  worth  to  me  ? 
All  countries  belong  alike  to  God,  and  if  a  happy  and  peace 
ful  life  could  be  better  secured  on  any  other  portion  of  this 
earth,  that  would  become  my  country." 

Thank  God,  we  Confederates  have  a  country  to  which  we 
may  claim  a  virtuous  attachment,  in  which  are  wrapped  up' 
our  individual  welfare  and  our  individual  aspirations ;  in 
which  we  have  pride  and  honor  for  the  courage  of  its  men, 
and  for  the  benevolent  missions  of  its  laws  to  every  home  and 
fireside.  Such  a  country  a  woman  or  child  can  love  quite  as 
intelligently  as  the  man  ;  for  it  is  the  expression  of  what 
makes  life  desirable,  adorns  it  with  unfailing  objects  of  pride, 
and  associates  each  member  of  the  community,  not  notoriously 
unworthy,  with  the  honors  of  familiar  history. 


382  THE  THIKD  YEAR  OF  THE 


CHAPTER  XI. 

OUT  OF  PBISON. — My  Parole. — In  Yankee  Atmosphere. — A  Letter  from  Boston. — 
Waiting. 

AUGUST  12. — A  memorable  day.  For,  on  this  day,  after  un 
speakable  and  almost  mortal  sufferings,  I  was  released  from 
prison,  on  a  parole,  to  remain  with  a  relative  within  the  limits 
of  Brooklyn,  until  my  special  exchange,  which  I  then  supposed 
to  be  in  negotiation,  was  completed.  A  concession  obtained 
for  me  by  friends,  to  whom  my  life-long,  loving  gratitude,  is' 
ever  due. 

In  the  morning,  Risk,  the  laconic  orderly,  came  to  my  case 
mate  with  the  short  and  severe  message,  "  I  was  wanted  at  the 
Adjutant's  office."  I  went  there  and  was  told  that  I  would  be 
released  on  signing  a  u  parole."  The  news  upset  my  nerves, 
and  brought  my  heart  into  my  throat ;  but,  alas  !  though  lib 
erated  from  the  fort,  I  was  yet  to  be  confined  in  Yankee  at 
mosphere.  But  I  certainly  was  not  disposed  to  quarrel  with 
the  partial  favors  of  fortune,  and  so  I  signed  the  following  doc 
ument  with  a  very  lively  satisfaction,  and  could  hardly  refrain 
from  shouting  for  joy  as  I  returned  to  the  casemate  to  gather 
up  my  blanket  and  what  few  "  duds  "  constituted  my  property 
in  prison : 

Parole  of  Honor. 

"  I,  Edward  A.  Pollard,  of  the  County  of  Henrico,  of  the 
State  of  Virginia,  do  hereby  pledge  my  sacred  word  of  honor, 
that,  in  consideration  of  being  temporarily  released  from  im 
prisonment  in  Fort  Warren,  I  will  proceed,  within  twenty-four 
hours  after  being  so  released,  to  Brooklyn,  N.  Y.,  and  that, 
during  the  continuance  of  this  Parole,  I  will  not  go  outside  the 
limits  of  said  city,  without  the  consent  of  the  Secretary  of  the 
Navy,  in  writing,  nor  commit  any  hostile  act  against  the 


APPENDIX.  383 

Government  of  the  United  States,  nor  afford  aid  or  comfort  to 
the  enemies  thereof  in  any  manner  whatever,  nor  communicate 
to  any  one  in  the  rebellious  States,  or  proceeding  thither,  or  to 
any  one  in  Europe,  or  other  foreign  country,  any  information 
that  mayor  can  be  used  to  the  injury  of  the  United  States, 
and  that  I  will  report  in  writing  to  the  Secretary  of  the  Navy 
every  two  weeks,  and  hold  myself  prepared  to  return  to  Fort 
"Warren  whenever  he  shall  so  direct ;  it  being  understood  that 
this  parole  is  to  cease  at  the  pleasure  of  the  Secretary  of  the 
Navy,  or  in  the  event  of  my  recommitment  to  prison,  or  my 
exchange,  or  the  termination  of  the  war. 

"Signed,  in  duplicate,  at  Fort  "Warren,  this  12th  day  of 
August,  1861, 

"  EDWAKD  A.  POLLARD. 

"Witness— 

"EDW.  E.  PAEEY,  1st  Lieut.,  llth  Infantry,  U.  S.  A., 
"  Commissary  of  Prisoners." 

What  a  parting  I  have  had  with  my  poor  fellow-prisoners — 
messages  and  entreaties  for  Richmond,  good  wishes,  affec 
tionate  counsels,  almost  tears !  Captain  Green  gave  me  a  ring 
of  his  own  manufacture,  and  my  good  friend  Marrs  wanted  to 
press  upon  me  a  gold  chain,  a  remnant  of  property  which  the 
Yankees  had,  strangely  enough,  left  the  poor  fellow.  As  I 
passed  through  the  sally,-port,  I  turned  to  wave  my  handker 
chief  to  the  weary,  watching  faces  ;  but  the  sergeant  orders  me 
to  "  move  on."  I  have  left  behind  some  friendships  in  those 
granite  walls  ;  and,  if  there,  too,  I  have  left  a  pleasant  record 
of  my  companionship  in  the  hearts  of  my  unfortunate  country 
men,  God  knows  that  I  am  prouder  of  it  than  of  any  other 
memory  of  my  life. 


August  15. — I  was  required  to  report  in  twenty-four  hours 
in  Brooklyn,  but  found  time  to  see  some  friends  in  Boston.  I 
saw  my  benefactress  there,  the  noble  Catholic  lady,  who  had 
devoted  herself  to  the  comfort  and  consolation  of  the  unhappy 
men  in  Fort  Warren,  and  whose  name  should  be  inscribed  in 
every  record  of  honor  in  the  Confederacy. 


38*  THE   THIRD   TEAK    OF   THE   WAK. 

I  am  yet  strange  and  giddy  in  the  comparative  liberty  of  a 
parole  after  the  horror  and  torture  of  a  Yankee  prison.  In  the 
streets  of  Boston  there  was  sounding  in  my  ears  the  usual  surly 
"  halt "  of  some  brass-harnessed  Yankee  at  almost  every  step  ; 
and  in  the  cars,  whirled  for  twelve  hours  by  the  white  houses 
and  apple  orchards  of  NQW  England,  and  through  the  peaceful 
scenes  of  the  country,  I  was  imagining  the  reveille,  the  harsh 
call  to  the  cook-house,  the  orderly's  round,  and  all  the  other 
routine  of  a  day  in  prison. 

I  am  living  in  a  very  remote  suburb  of  Brooklyn  ;  and  here, 
incog.,  and  intent  to  avoid  all  contact  with  the  Yankee,  I  must 
possess  my  soul  in  patience,  until,  in  God's  good  time  and 
merciful  providence,  I  shall  again  breathe  the  air  of  home  and 
of  liberty. 


August  17. — A  letter  from  my  dear  friend  in  Boston  : 

BOSTON,  1864. 

I  did  not  half  tell  yon,  my  dear  Mr.  Pollard,  how  glad  and  grate 
ful  I  am  for  your  release.  I  did  not  realize  it  until  after  you 
had  gone.  The  pleasure  of  seeing  you,  face  to  face,  of  making 
you  a  veritable  fact,  after  believing  you  somewhat  a  myth,  of 
talking  with  you  upon  the  one  subject  of  deep  interest  to  us 
both,  was  too  much  at  the  time  to  take  in  that  other  joy  of 
your  freedom.  I  suppose  if  I  were  a  boy,  I  should  have 
thrown  up  my  cap,  and  made  a  noise  like  that  "  the  shrouds 
make  at  sea,  in  a  stiff  tempest,  as  loud  and  to  as  many  tones." 
As  it  was,  I  followed  the  impulse  of  a  womanly  nature,  and, 
kneeling  down,  I  thanked  Him  who  had  heard  our  prayer,  and 
loosed  your  chains,  and  opened  wide  your  guarded  prison 
doors. 

.  .  .  .  We  are  getting  up  some  things  for  the  prisoners. 
What  shall  I  put  in  for  Mr.  Pollard,  was  my  first  thought- 
forgetting,  for  the  moment,  that  you  had  taken  wings.  I  wish 
I  had  asked  you  more  particularly  what  is  best  to  send.  I 
shall  really  be  grateful  for  any  suggestions.  After  all,  how 
little  one  can  do  for  so  many.  What  are  the  five  loaves  and 
two  small  fishes  among  such  a  multitude.  It  is  only  that  the 


APPENDIX.  385 

doing  one's  best  is  acceptable  from  the  sympathy  it  expresses. 
You,  dear  friend,  entirely  over-estimated  the  very  little  I  found 
it  a  privilege  to  do  for  you.  If  I  could  atone  by  a  life  of  ser 
vice  for  the  least  of  the  wrongs  my  people  (alas !  that  I 
should  say  my  people)  have  inflicted  upon  as  noble  a  race  as 
God  ever  created,  I  should  only  be  too  happy.  You.  must 
never  think  of  any  little  thing  I  have  done  in  any  other 
way.  If  I  have  given  you  one  moment's  cheer  or  comfort,  L 
has  been  more  to  me  than  to  you  that  I  have  been  able 
to  do  so. 

I  shall  hope  to  hear  from  you.  as  soon  as  you  have  had  your 
fill  of  sleeping  between  fresh,  clean  sheets.  I  think  I  would 
take  it  out  after  the  fashion  of  Eip  Van  Winkle.  And  the 
pleasure,  too,  of  sitting  at  a  table  with  one's  own  friends, 
and  eating  in  a  Christian  way !  It  must  almost  repay  you 
for  the  hardship  and  the  keen  discomfort  of  your  prison 
life.  ]STo  more  rations,  no  more  abominable  pork !  Deo 
gratias  ! 

I  have  just  received  a  call  from  a  gentleman  friend  .... 
He  is,  indeed,  a  very  true  and  faithful  man  ;  and  the  time  will 
yet  come  when  his  voice  will  be  heard  above  the  wild  waves 
of  passionate  strife,  and  his  calm  power  will  be  felt.  I  intend 
writing  him  this  week,  and  it  will  give  me  great  pleasure  to 
tell  him  what  you  said  of  him. 


....  September  10.— The  fall  has  set  in,  and  yet  no 
news  of  my  exchange.  I  have  written  to  Eichmond  of  my 
failing  health ;  but  I  fear  it  may  be  some  time  yet  before  I 
again  see  my  brown  South,  and  stand  upon  the  "sacred  soil" 
of  Virginia. 

Living  here,  almost  in  the  seclusion  of  four  walls— at  least, 
choosing  such  severe  isolation  as  I  think  becomes,  both  the 
misfortune  and  resentment  of  a  prisoner— consumed  by  sick 
ness  and  anxiety,  I  have  nothing  left  to  sustain  me  but  the 
promises  of  hope.  And  if  I  cannot  hope  successfully,  I  can 
at  least  hope  bravely. 

25 


386  THE  THIRD  YEAR  OF  THE  WAK. 

Anything  rather  than  mere  nostalgia,  or  that  certain  fatal 
charm  of  melancholy,  which  loses  its  misfortunes  in  idle  sen- 
timentalism. 

He  who  learns  to  wait  is  more  than  all  other  men  the  master 
of  his  fate. 


Chronology  of  the  Third  Year  of  the  ¥ar, 


1863. 

May     1. — Battle  of  Port  Gibson,  Miss.     Gen.  Grant,  U.  S.  A.,  de 
feats  the  C.  S.  Gens.  Green  and  Tracy. 

"       14. — Jackson,  Miss.,  is  evacuated,  and  occupied  by  Grant. 

"  16. — Gen.  Grant  defeats  Gen.  Pemberton  at  Baker's  Creek. 
Gen.  Tilghman  killed. 

"  17. — Gen.  Pemberton  routed  on  the  Big  Black  by  Gen.  Grant, 
and  retreats  to  Vicksburg. 

"  22. — Attack  and  repulse  of  the  U.  S.  forces  under  Gen.  Grant 
on  the  works  at  Vicksburg.  Attack  and  repulse  of 
the  U.  S.  forces  under  Gen.  Banks  at  Port  Hudson. 

"       23. — Investment  of  Yicksburg  by  Gen.  Grant. 
June     3. — Beginning  of  Gen.  Lee's  onward  movement  in  Virginia. 

"  9. — Gen.  Stuart  defeats  the  Federal  cavalry  at  Brandy 
Station. 

"  14. — Battle  of  Winchester  and  defeat  of  the  Federals  by 
Gen.  Ewell.  Capture  of  Martinsburg  by  Gen.  Rodes. 
Second  attack  on  the  works  at  Port  Hudson. 

"14-11. — Gen.  Hooker  withdraws  from  the  Rappahannock,  and 
occupies  Centreville  and  Manassas. 

"  17. — Two  brigades  of  Federal  cavalry  defeated  by  Stuart  at 
Aldie. 

"  18. — Engagement  at  Aldie  renewed.  Stuart  forced  to  re 
tire. 

"       23. — Capture  of  Brashear  City,  La.,  by  Gen.  Taylor. 

"  24-30. — Invasion  of  Maryland  and  Pennsylvania  by  the  Confed 
erate  forces  under  Gen.  Lee. 

"       28. — Repulse  of  Gen.  Green  at  Donaldsonville,  La. 

"  29. — The  Federal  army,  under  Gen.  Meade,  crosses  the  Po 
tomac. 


388     CHRONOLOGY  OF  THE  THIRD  YEAR  OF  THE  WAR. 

July  1-4. — Battle  of  Gettysburg.  The  Confederates  under  Gen. 
Lee  defeated  by  Gen.  Meade,  and  forced  to  retire 
from  Pennsylvania.  C.  S.  loss  10,000.  Gens.  Pen- 
der,  Armistead,  Barksdale,  Garnett,  and  Semmes  kill 
ed.  U.  S.  loss  between  15,000  and  18,000.  Gen. 
Reynolds  killed  on  the  1st. 

**         2. — Gen.  Morgan  crosses  the  Cumberland. 

"  4. — Unconditional  surrender  of  Vicksburg,  by  Lieut.-gen. 
Pemberton,  to  Major-gen.  Grant.  Gen.  Lee  begins 
his  retreat.  The  Confederates  under  Gen.  Price  de 
feated  at  Helena,  Ark.,  with  a  loss  in  killed  and 
wounded  of  500  to  600. 

"        5.- — Capture  of  Lebanon,  Ky.,  by  Gen.  Morgan. 

"•  6.- — Gen.  Imboden  defeats  the  Federal  cavalry  at  Williams- 
port,  Md. 

"  8-18. — Gen.  Morgan  makes  a  raid  through  Indiana  and  Ohio. 

Is  captured,  with  200  men,  near  New  Lisbon. 
9. — Surrender  of  Port  Hudson.      Landing  of  Gen.  Strong 
on  Morris  Island,  S.  C. 

"  9-16. — Bombardment  of  Jackson,  Miss.,  by  Gen.  Sherman. 

"  10. — The  Federal  troops  attack  Fort  Wagner  and  are  re 
pulsed. 

"  12.— 4,000  U.  S.  troops  defeated  by  1,200  Confederates  under 
Gen.  Green,  near  Donaldsonville,  La. 

"       13. — Capture  of  Yazoo  City  by  the  Federals. 

"  16. — Evacuation  of  Jackson  by  Gen.  J.  E.  Johnston.  Gen. 
Sherman  occupies  and  destroys  the  town.  Gen.  Lee 
recrosses  the  Potomac. 

"      31> — Gen.  Burnside  declares  martial  law  in  Kentucky. 
Aug.   18. — Commencement   of  the  bombardment   of  Charleston. 
The  Federals  attack  Fort  Wagner  and  are  defeated, 
with  a  loss  of  1,550.     Confederate  loss  about  100. 

"  21-24. — Bombardment  of  Sumter  by  the  combined  U.  S.  land 
and  naval  forces  under  Gen.  Gillmore  and  Admiral 
Dahlgren. 

«  26.— Gen.  Averill  is  defeated  near  Dublin,  Va.,  by  Col.  Pat- 
ton. 

Sept.  6,— Evacuation  of  Fort  Wagner.  The  Federals  occupy 
Morris  Island. 

u  8. — The  U.  S.  troops  make  a  night  attack  on  Fort  Sumter 
and  are  repulsed.  Defeat  of  the  Federals  at  Sabine 
Pass,  La. 


CHRONOLOGY  OF  THE  THIRD  YEAR  OF  THE  WAR. 

Sept.  9.— Gen.  Frazier  surrenders  Cumberland  Gap  to  Gen.  Burn- 
side. 

"      19-20. — Battle  of  Chickamauga.     Gen.  Rosecrans  is  defeated 
by  Gen.  Bragg,  with  the  loss  of  8,000  prisoners,  51 
cannon,  and  15,000  stand  of  small  arms,  and  falls  back 
on  Chattanooga. 
Oct.     1 1 . — Cavalry  engagement  near  Brandy  Station. 

"        14. — Qen.  Hill  repulsed  at  Bristoe  Station. 

«  ig. — Gen.  Imboden  captures  Charlestown,  Ya.,  and  434  pris 
oners.  Gen.  Grant  assumes  command  of  the  Military 
Division  of  the  Mississippi,  and  proceeds  to  relieve 
Chattanooga. 

"        29. — Engagement  in  Lookout  Valley.      Confederate  forces 

defeated. 

Nov.  6. — Skirmish  at  Rogersville,  East  Tennessee.  General 
Echols  defeats  Col.  Jackson  at  Droop  Mountain, 
Virginia. 

"  7.— The  Confederates  defeated  at  Kelly's  Ford,  on  the  Rap- 
pahannock. 

"  8. — Battle  of  Missionary  Ridge ;  Bragg  defeated  by  Grant, 
and  forced  to  abandon  his  intrenchments,  with  the 
loss  of  40  cannon  and  6,000  prisoners.  U.  S.  loss  in 
killed  and  wounded  5,000. 

"  27. — The  Federals  defeated  at  Germania  Ford,  on  the  Rap- 
idan. 

"       29. — Gen.   Longstreet   makes   an  assault  on  Knoxville  and 
is    repulsed.       C.  S.   loss   in   killed,   wounded,   and 
prisoners,  700.     U.  S.  loss  in  killed  and  wounded,  20. 
Dec.S-22. — Gen.  Averill  makes  a  raid  into  the  heart  of  Virginia. 


1864. 


Jan.    30. — Raid  of  cavalry  under  Gen.  Rosser. 

Feb.       1. — Commander  Wood,  C.  S.  N.,  captures  the  U.  S.  gunboat 

Underwriter,  near  Newbern,  N.  C. 
"    1-25. — Gen.  Sherman's  expedition  into  Mississippi.   Failure,  and 

return  to  Vicksburg. 

"    9-11.— Skirmishing   on   John's  Island,   S.   C.      The   Federals 
retire. 


390     CHRONOLOGY  OF  THE  THIRD  YEAR  OF  THE  WAR. 

Feb.  20. — Gen.  Seymour  is  defeated  by  Gen.  Finnigan  at  Ocean 
Pond,  Florida.  C.  S.  loss  80  killed,  650  wounded. 
U.  S.  loss  500  prisoners,  and  probably  2,000  killed  and 
wounded. 

"        21. — Cavalry   engagement   at   Okalona.      Gens.   Smith   and 
Grierson  defeated  by  Gen.  Forrest  and  fall  back  to 
Memphis. 
"        25. — Gen.  Thomas  attempts   an  advance  but  falls  back  on 

Chickamauga. 

11  28. — Attempted  raid  around  Richmond  under  Gen.  Kilpat- 
rick  and  Col.  Dahlgren.  Dahlgren  killed  and  his 
force  captured. 

Marchl4. — Fort  De  Russy,  on  the  Red  river,  taken  by  Gen.  A.  J. 
Smith. 

"      16. — Occupation  of  Alexandria,  La.,  by  Federals. 
April    7. — Skirmish  at  Pleasant  Hill,  La. 

"  8.— Battle  of  Mansfield,  La.  Gen.  Banks  defeated  by  Gen. 
Kirby  Smith,  and  driven  to  Pleasant  Hill.  Gen. 
Mouton  killed. 

"  9.— Battle  of  Pleasant  Hill.  Gen.  Banks  falls  back  to  Grand 
Ecore,  thus  ending  the  disastrous  Red  river  expedi 
tion.  U.  S.  loss,  altogether,  8,000  killed  and  wound 
ed,  1,000  prisoners,  35  guns,  1,200  wagons,  1  gun 
boat,  and  3  transports. 

"      12. — Storming  of  Fort  Pillow  by  Gen.  Forrest. 

"      It. — Gen.  Hoke's  expedition  against  Plymouth,  N".  C. 

"      25. — Gen.  Forrest  attacks  Paducah,  Ky. 

"      28.— Gen.  Hoke  takes  Plymouth,  N.  C. 
May  5-6. — Battle  of  the  Wilderness. 

"         5. — Gen.  Butler  moves  up  the  James  river. 

"         7. — Desultory  fighting  on  the  Fredericksburg  road. 

"  8. — Gen.  Warren  is  repulsed  in  two  engagments  near  Spott- 
sylvania. 

«         9.— Gen.  Sedgwick  killed. 

"  10. — Cavalry  engagement  near  Yellow  Tavern,  Ya.  Gen.  J. 
E.  B.  Stuart  killed. 

"       12.— Battle  of  Spottsylvania  C.  H. 

"  15. — Gen.  Sigel  defeated  near  Newmarket  by  Gen.  Breckin- 
ridge. 

«  i6t — Gen.  Beauregard  attacks  Gen.  Butler's  advanced  position 
at  Drury's  Bluff.  Gen.  Butler  retires  to  Bermuda 
Hundred 


CHRONOLOGY  OF  THE  THIRD  YEAR  OF  THE  WAR.     391 

May    28. — Gen.  Grant  crosses  the  Pamunkey. 
Jane      3. — Attack  on  the  Confederate  works  at  Cold  Harbor.  Fed 
erals  repulsed. 

"  5. — Gen.  Hunter  has  a  success  at  Piedmont,  and  effects 
the  capture  of  Staunton.  Death  of  Gen.  W.  E. 
Jones. 

"  7. — Flank  movement  on  Resaca,  Ga.,  by  which  Gen.  J.  E. 
Johnston  is  forced  to  evacuate  Dalton. 

«  9. — Expedition  from  Gen.  Butler's  lines  against  Petersburg. 
Federals  repulsed. 

"       12. — Grant  crosses  the  James  river. 

«       14.— Battle  of  Resaca. 

"  16, 17, 18. — Grant's  forces  attempt  to  take  Petersburg  by 
assault  and  are  repulsed. 

"       22. — Grant  attempts  the  Weldon  railroad. 

"       27. — Battle  of  Kenesaw  Mountain.     Gen.  Sherman  repulsed. 

"       28. — Gen.  McPherson  repulsed  at  New  Hope,  Ga.     Unsuc 
cessful  attempt  on  the  Weldon  railroad  by  U.  S.  cav 
alry  under  Gens.  Wilson  and  Kautz. 
July      3. — Gen.  Johnston  retreats  to  Atlanta,  Ga. 

"  20. — Battle  near  Atlanta  between  Gen.  Sherman  and  Gen. 
Hood. 

"       22. — Battle  near  Atlanta. 

"      28. — Engagement  near  Atlanta. 


JS  X  IMC  aCS'S       "W  O  IE*.  33L  SB. 

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Fair  Rebel  of  Dorchester. 

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of  the  Congaree. 

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about  the  Dovecote. 

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Mississippi. 

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tucky. 

12.  BEAUCHAMPE;  or,  The  Kentucky 

Tragedy. 

13.  CONFESSION;      or,      The     Blind 

Heart. 

14.  THE  YEMASSEE;  A  Romance  of 

South  Carolina. 

15.  VASCONSELOS:  A  Romance  of  the 

New  World. 

16.  SOUTHWARD    HO!    A    Spell    of 

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LIFE,  SERVICES,  AND  CAMPAIGNS 


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devour  with  avidity  an  authentic  life.  Poor  compilations  may  be  got  up  by  authors 
without  access  to  authentic  documents,  but  this  is  a  life  written  by  a  Confederate 
Officer  (HoN.  JOHN  M.  DANIELS)  who  knew  him  well,  served  under  him  in  his  bril 
liant  career,  was  assisted  in  the  work  by  Mrs.  JACKSON,  and  had  access  to  all  his 
papers.  It  is  written  with  great  ability,  and  forms  a  volume  of  intense  and  absorb 
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It  contains  the  only  authentic  portrait  of  JACKSON,  taken  from  life,  shortly  before 
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JKif  Thorough.  Agents  wanted  everywhere.  If  you  cannot  act,  hand 
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SOUTHERN  HISTORY  OF  THE  WAR. 

THE  FIRST  YEAR  OF  THE  WAR: 

BY  E.  A.  POLLARD,  EDITOR  RICHMOND  EXAMINER. 
1  Vol.  8vo  ;  400  pages  ;  Cloth,  $2.50. 

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tured  to  Southern  readers,  cannot  be  underrated.  It  is  well  written,  full  of 
details,  with  many  narratives  and  incidents  of  personal  adventure  of  the  great 
est  interest.  It  contains  interesting  sketcnes  of  Southern  Officers,  the  Consti 
tution  of  the  Confederate  States,  and  a  Chronological  List  of  Battles  and  Events. 


SECOND  YEAR  OF  THE  WAR: 

BY  E.  A.  POLLARD,  AUTHOR  OF  "THE  FIRST  YEAR  OF  THE  WAR." 
1  Vol.  Svo  ;  400 pages;  Cloth,  $2.50. 

With  Portraits  on  steel,  recently  taken,  of  Vice-President  STEPHENS, 

Generals  LONGSTREET,  HILL,  STUART,  and  JOHNSTON, 

and  Plans  of  Battles. 


This  volume  brings  the  History  of  the  War,  from  a  Southern  view,  down 
to  the  close  of  the  invasion  (July,  1863)  of  Pennsylvania. 

Written  with  clearness,  independence,  and  ability,  and  as  the  only  connect 
ed  account  of  all  the  civil,  military,  and  naval  operations  in  the  South,  it  is  of 
great  importance  and  interest.  It  gives  a  thrilling  narrative  of  Campaigns 
which  were  filled  with  interesting  incidents  and  brilliant  action.  It  contains  a 
Chronological  List  of  Battles  and  Events. 


Wow    B,eady, 

THIRD  YEAR  OF  THE  WAR: 

BY  E.  A.  POLLARD, 

AUTHOR  OF  FIRST  AND  SECOND  YEARS  OF  THE  WAR. 

1  Vol.  Svo;  400 pages;  Cloth,  $2.50. 

With  Portraits,  on  steel,  of  Generals  COOPER,  BRAGG,  KIRBT 
SMITH,  EWELL,  and  the  Author. 

This  volume  closes  with  the  attack  on  Petersburg  by  General  Grant.  It  cov 
ers  a  period  of  great  interest ;  and  giving,  as  it  does;  an  inside  view  of  the  civil, 
military,  and  naval  operations  in  the  South,  it  cannot  fail  to  interest  every  in 
telligent  observer.  It  contains  a  complete  and  careful  account  of  the  Military 
Resources,  Military  System,  and  Internal  Polity  of  the  Confederacy,  with  many 
incidents,  narratives  of  campaigns,  and  a  chronology  for  the  year. 


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